No sooner had former Representative Barney Frank publicly declared his interest in an interim appointment to replace Senator John Kerry than did members of the public begin asking if it wasn’t really just some secret gambit to boost his congressional pension.
The short answer is, no.
Comments
Something seems a bit weird about this tale of poor Barney, whom Mr. Johnson seems to be suggesting needs a good dose of pity for his refusal to have some retirement foresight. Barney served at Boston City Hall, where he concentrated on legal sex shows and such for Mayor Kevin White. And of course, his brilliance at lawmaking was well known when he served in the Massachusetts state House of Reps. Now, one wonders: don't those state/city service jobs give Barney some sort of access to the Massachusetts state retirement system? What did he ever do as work in the private sector that gave him access to Social Security? Gotta say, though, it's nice that Demomob publicist extraordinaire Johnson clears up the question of whether Barney has some sort of nefarious motive for trying to pressure poor Deeval into naming him to a vacant and temporary U.S. Senate seat.
My understanding of a democracy (which I thought this country was-) is that the people decide who the candidate should be in the special election not "party" officals. Markley at age 66 and in office since 1976 should be looking at retirement and let a younger fresh thinking candidate run. Expecting those leaders who got us into the mess we are in to lead us our of it is foolhardy.
Massachusetts has a semi-closed primary system. That means you pick which party's primary ballot you want to vote on, but you are automatically registered for that party. You then may go through the process of changing your affiliation, or lack thereof, back to what it was before that. 'Party officials' are involved in determining who has enough support to qualify for the primary ballot, and that is true for Republicans, Democrats, Greens, etc., and it just as true in states with fully open primaries, such as Vermont, or closed primaries, such as Maine. The people can choose from the list of candidates on theh ballot, or write in the name of a candidate not on the ballot.