Mass. Senate appointment bill stalls

Only the state Senate stands in the way of a bill that would permit Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to fill Senate vacancies through appointment.

Although the state's House approved the measure on Thursday night on a 95-58 vote, a group of Republicans on Friday temporarily blocked Senate consideration of the bill, The Associated Press reported today. That means state Senate lawmakers, who have adjourned until Monday, cannot consider the proposal until some time next week.

First pitched by the late-Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill under consideration would re-write state law and return the power of interim appointments to the governor. Lawmakers stripped then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R) of this ability in 2004, fearing he would appoint a Republican to take Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) place in the event he won the presidency.

A number of Republicans have since asserted Kennedy's proposal, which he offered in a letter before his death, smacks of political nepotism. But Democrats, including Patrick and Kerry, say the revision to state law is necessary to ensure Massachusetts has two voices in the Senate while candidates vie in a special election, scheduled for January.