Friday, August 28, 2009
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — As mourners began to gather in Boston on Thursday to say farewell to Sen. Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts officials began moving to fill his seat quickly — but possibly with someone from outside the Kennedy family for the first time in 56 years.
His widow, Vicki, was mentioned by political insiders as a possible successor, but family members discouraged such talk.
No one in the next generation of Kennedys, including former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, the oldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, is seen as a serious contender. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., would have to give up his seat and move to Massachusetts to succeed his father.
Edward Kennedy died late Tuesday, and his body was transported to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum on Thursday, where it is to lie in repose until Saturday, when a funeral Mass will start at 10:30 a.m. at Boston’s Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, attended by President Barack Obama and the nation’s four living ex-presidents.
Even as the funeral preparations went forward, however, the political world buzzed with talk of who would fill the seat and whether it would pass from the Kennedy family, which has controlled it since John F. Kennedy was elected in 1952.
He left the seat in December 1960, after being elected president, and family friend Benjamin Smith was appointed until Edward Kennedy was old enough to run in 1962. Kennedy, who turned 30 that year, the minimum age for a U.S. senator, held it until his death Tuesday night at age 77.
Kennedy himself is partly responsible for the talk. A week before he died, he released a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and state legislative leaders urging them to seek a change in state law that would allow Patrick to quickly name a successor.
“As I look ahead,” Kennedy wrote, “I am convinced that enabling the governor to fill a Senate vacancy through an interim appointment followed by a special election would best serve the people of our Commonwealth and country should a vacancy occur.” He also urged officials to get an “explicit personal commitment” from the appointee “not to become a candidate in the special election.”
The effort gained momentum Thursday. “I’d like the Legislature to take up the bill quickly and get it to my desk, and I will sign it,” Patrick told the Boston Globe.
The current law was enacted in 2004 by the Democrat-dominated Legislature to prevent Republican Gov. Mitt Romney from naming a successor if Sen. John Kerry had beaten President George W. Bush.