Tuesday, September 22, 2009

General Court passes bill to allow Senate appointment

UPDATE!
TPM reports that the bill has passed the House and goes to the Governor. Does not take effect unless an emergency is declared.
Read it here


From Talking Points Memo blog, here is an article about the state Senate passage of a bill to allow Governor Patrick to appoint a US Senator until a special election is held to fill the late Senator Kennedy's seat.
The Boston Globe weighed in with this opinion today, putting former Governor Michael Dukakis forward ...

... as the best candidate for the interim appointment. According to the TPM blog, the Governor may make the appointment as early as this week.
Is Dukakis the right man or do you like someone else? Let us know in comments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bill,

This bill IF/WHEN signed by Governor Patrick will not be law for 90 days. (it's in our constitution)

The only way around the 90 day rule is to delcare an emergency which

1. has to meet the criteria for an emergency according to our constitution. This does not.

2. A 2/3rds majority is required to pass emergency legislation. There is not a 2/3rds majority in either the house or senate.

To claim that this is a done deal is wrong and careless. You have not seen the end of this fight yet.

Lastly, changing election law in the middle of an election cycle is against the law. This election cycle started the day Kennedy died, even if the 90 days pass and the bill becomes law it will surely be challenged in the courts.

Basically, no chance in hell of Patrick appointing anyone. If he makes an appointment illegally I am sure the illegal appointee will not be sworn into the Senate.

Bill Trimble said...

Read this
http://www.bluemassgroup.com/diary/17044/i-had-not-realized-just-how-ignorant-the-ma-gop-is-about-the-ma-constitution