by Daniel J. Flynn
on 8.21.09
“It is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate in the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election,” an ailing Ted Kennedy wrote the leaders of the Massachusetts General Court in a letter made public yesterday. “I therefore am writing to urge you to work together to amend the law through the normal legislative process to provide for a temporary gubernatorial appointment until the special election occurs.”
Five years ago, with high hopes of electing their junior U.S. senator to the presidency, the Massachusetts state legislature stripped the governor of the power to fill senatorial vacancies. Every Democrat voted for the measure. Then, the governor, Mitt Romney, was a Republican. Now, the governor is a Democrat.
Welcome to the banana commonwealth of Massachusetts, where more than fifty years of one-party dominance has fostered a make-up-the-rules-as-you-go-along mentality among those who make the rules. Almost a half century ago, in the infancy of the Democrats’ Bay State hegemony, Jack Kennedy maneuvered his baby brother Ted into a Senate seat, though he had never held a steady paying job (save a stint as an army private) prior to that point.
The entire article is well worth reading.
