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Massachusetts pols eye Kennedy seat

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

In a press conference Monday, Governor Deval Patrick announced that Kennedy’s successor will be chosen at a special election on January 19.
Primary elections to select the respective Democrat and Republican challengers will take place on December 8.
Patrick, a Democrat, also hopes to appoint an interim senator to serve during the five months leading up to the special election.
In the days before his death, Kennedy had asked state lawmakers to change the current law, which prevents governors from making such appointments.
But Republicans are crying foul because Kennedy himself was behind the existing law, which was enacted in 2004 by Democrats to prevent then-governor Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican to the Senate in the event that Senator John Kerry won the presidency.
Patrick and state legislators are under pressure from national leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow the appointment because they may need the vote for successful passage of health care proposals and other legislation in the coming months.
Patrick said that he will seek assurances from whomever he picks that the interim senator would not run in the special election.
Among prominent Democrats being mentioned as possible candidates are two U.S. representatives, Stephen Lynch of South Boston and Michael Capuano of Somerville, state attorney general Martha Coakley, and former U.S. representative Martin Meehan.
Former congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, nephew of the late senator, has also been the subject of heightened speculation, as has the senator’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. At presstime, neither has publicly commented about the possibility of running in the special election.
Joseph Kennedy’s brother, Douglas Kennedy, did tell the Boston Herald last week that he would be happy to see his brother Joseph take the Senate seat, but he quickly added that he had talked with no one about that prospect.
Although any Republican would be a dark horse in generally liberal Massachusetts, possible contenders from that party include Kerry Healey, who was governor Mitt Romney’s lieutenant governor, state senator Scott Brown of Wrentham, and former White House Chief of Staff, Andrew Card.
Another Republican name circulating within the rumor mill is that of former Boston Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who helped the Sox win two World Series titles.

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