Even during this emotional time when we remember Senator Kennedy's remarkable achievements, there are at least three important matters of succession we must consider. First, who receives Kennedy's Senate HELP committee chairmanship. Second, if there will be an interim Senator. Third, who the candidates will be for the special election in January. This article touches on all three areas.
Senate HELP Committee
Senator Kennedy's chairmanship of the Senate HELP committee will need to be filled. Paul Kaine breaks down the likely candidates. The odds on favorite appears to be Mikulski:
A new chairman won't be formally selected until senators return from their August recess. Legislative business for the fall session is slated to begin Sept. 8.
The first Democrat in line in committee seniority now is Kennedy's closest friend in the Senate, Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who shepherded the health-care legislation through the HELP committee in June and July.
Dodd, however, already chairs the banking committee, and he would have to give up that gavel in order to take up the legislative legacy of Kennedy.(...)
If Dodd were to pass on taking the HELP chairmanship, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has the next chance to take over the panel. But Harkin already chairs the Agriculture Committee, which is of critical importance to his home state, and Harkin is not believed to be interested in the HELP gavel.
That would leave Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) next in line to chair the committee. She has already been overseeing the education portfolio of that panel in Kennedy's stead, and she led the passage of major reforms to Pell grants last year. The HELP committee is slated to consider a reauthorization of the landmark No Child Left Behind legislation that Kennedy co-authored in 2002.
Will there be an interim Senator?
Massachusetts is one of only three states where special elections are held in the event of a Senate vacancy, rather than the Governor appointing a replacement. Given the details of the Massachusetts law, which was passed in 2004, that special election will take place on either January 19th or January 26th.
While that special election will be held no matter what, in the meantime the Massachusetts legislature is making moves to appoint an interim Senator, as per one of Senator Kennedy's last wishes. Now, via TomP, this might actually happen:
Elections Law committee co-chair Sen. Tom Kennedy (D-Brockton) said he and House co-chair Michael J. Moran (D-Boston) may bump up a hearing date for a bill that would give temporary appointing power to Patrick to Sept. 17.
"(The bill) was originally grouped in with the October hearing, but we're trying to take into consideration the interest of the legislators," said Kennedy.
Rep. Robert M. Koczera (D-New Bedford), who filed the bill, spoke to Moran yesterday and said he received assurances that his bill would be heard before the original Oct. 7 hearing.
There also appears to be support within the State Senate and from Governor Patrick:
Therese Murray, the state senate president, has said the state should not be without a second senator for long. And Mr. Patrick said Wednesday in radio interviews that he would sign such a bill if it reached his desk.
Whatever the current legal hurdles and unfortunate timing of this process, the ethics of the situation seem pretty straightforward. There is a moral imperative to provide health care coverage to all Americans, just as there is a moral imperative to provide equal representation to all Americans. Those values outweigh any process arguments we can expect to hear coming from the Republican Noise Machine as this effort moves forward.
Special Election
The Hill has a comprehensive look at the candidates:
Just about every member of the state's 10-member all-Democratic congressional delegation has been mentioned as a potential candidate, particularly Reps. Edward Markey, Richard Neal and three others who have already banked more than a million dollars in their House accounts.
Markey, who raised his profile after shepherding climate change legislation through the House this year, has $2.89 million in the bank. Neal, whose district stretches from the Boston suburbs west to Springfield, has $2.5 million in cash reserves.
Rep. John Tierney (D), who holds the northeast corner of the state based around Peabody, has $1.29 million in reserve, and Rep. Michael Capuano (D), whose district includes northern Boston suburbs Cambridge and Lowell, would start a Senate race with $1.2 million. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D) would launch a bid from his south Boston district with $1.39 million.
Former Reps. Marty Meehan and Joe Kennedy, Ted Kennedy's nephew, also have large House accounts and are considered top Democratic contenders, as is state Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Meehan, who left Congress in 2007 to take over as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, nonetheless has $4.8 million left in his congressional account. Joe Kennedy has $1.7 million in the bank.
Coakley has been seen as a potential Senate candidate for some time. When Kerry appeared a strong contender to lead President Barack Obama's State Department, Coakley commissioned a poll testing her chances.
On the Republican side, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, former U.S. attorney Michael Sullivan and former Ambassador Chris Egan lead the list of potential suitors.
Massachusetts House Democrats have been hoarding money for this money for quite some time. Back in 2006, this made the Massachusetts delegation the primary targets of the Use It Or Lose It campaign to transfer Democratic money to swing districts. If you need a moment of levity today, listen to the old NPR story on the Use It Or Lose It campaign, including the part where the Lowell Sun calls it "a nasty shakedown by rotten political scoundrels." Classy!
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