Mass. Senate to Take Up Kennedy Succession Monday

NEW YORK, Sept. 19 -- The Massachusetts Senate will meet again Monday to take up the question of allowing the governor to appoint an interim U.S. senator to replace the late Edward M. Kennedy, after Republicans in the chamber succeeded Friday in delaying debate on the proposal.

The bill passed the House 95 to 58 on Thursday night. But the Senate adjourned Friday after just a few minutes when a Republican senator used a procedural rule to delay the debate.

Other Republicans indicated that they could use the same procedure to continue delaying the vote indefinitely. Under the Senate's rules, a single senator can request a delay in a debate. The 40-member Senate has five Republicans.

Most analysts said, however, that they expect the measure to pass, perhaps by midweek and with a closer vote than in the House, and Gov. Deval L. Patrick (D) to make the appointment immediately thereafter.

"Now that the House has given them cover, they [the senators] will pass it," said Daniel B. Payne, a longtime Democratic media consultant. "Other than Republicans rattling the cages, there doesn't seem to be much opposition."

Kennedy had asked for the change in a letter to state officials he penned shortly before his death, saying that with crucial issues such as the Obama administration's health-care proposal coming up for a vote, Massachusetts needed two U.S. senators in the months before a special election is held in January.

President Obama, John F. Kerry (D) -- now the state's senior senator -- and Patrick support putting an interim senator in place.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts had resisted changing the law to allow for an appointed senator. Some were concerned that the change would appear too brazenly political, because the law was altered in 2004, when the state had a Republican governor and Democrats did not want him naming a U.S. senator in the event that Kerry won the presidency.

State politics also have played a role. The state Senate's president, Therese Murray, is backing Attorney General Martha Coakley in the special election and was said to be lukewarm to the idea of an interim appointment. Murray has also been at odds with Patrick, who is facing a tough reelection fight next year.

Massachusetts political analysts said the name most prominently mentioned for the appointment, former governor Michael Dukakis, the 1988 presidential nominee, may have played a role in moving the bill forward. Dukakis is considered a "safe" choice, because he remains widely respected in the state and is said to harbor no ambition to hold on to the seat.

"I think Dukakis is the leading candidate because he is an A-lister who won't want to stay after five months," Payne said. "He'd be perfectly happy with this as a capstone and not as a steppingstone."

Dukakis also has another advantage: He was neutral in the state's last, hotly contested Democratic gubernatorial primary, which Patrick won. In addition, many of the state's current Democratic officeholders came of age during Dukakis's campaigns, and some said his organization -- or what is left of it -- could help Patrick in his reelection bid.

But one Democratic consultant, who advises Patrick informally but holds no official position, cautioned that other names were on the list. "The governor has not said anything to anybody about who he will appoint," he said.