Local pols differ over Senate seat interim pick

LYNN – Lynn Democrat Steve Walsh and Peabody’s Joyce Spiliotis do not favor appointing an interim successor to U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy but other delegation representatives believe an interim is the way to go.Walsh on Monday said he is reluctant to favor an interim appointment and said the focus in the Kennedy succession question should be on scheduling a special election. He voted for the 2004 law assuring an election would be held to pick Kerry’s successor.”We’re committed to an election,” he said, “it is a lot to ask” of an appointee to serve as a U.S. senator for 150 days.State Rep. Mark Falzone voted against allowing Mitt Romney to appoint a successor to U.S. Sen. John Kerry in 2004. Now he is poised to reverse his opinion.He is not alone: Just more than a week from today, Falzone and other legislators will discuss giving Gov. Deval Patrick authority to name an interim successor to Kennedy, who died last Tuesday.As a member of the Legislature’s election laws committee, Falzone will be among the first legislators to review the proposal and vote for or against sending it to the rest of his colleagues for action.The proposal is scheduled for an initial legislative review Sept. 9 with the special election scheduled for Jan. 19, 2010.”I think we certainly owe this a good hard look with everything going on in Washington, D.C.,” Falzone said Monday.Other area legislators are not so sure about the succession proposal.”Someone will have to present to me a real compelling reason to change it back,” said state Rep. Joyce Spiliotis as she became one of the first local legislators to speak about the selection process for Kennedy’s successor.Spiliotis, a Peabody Democrat, voted in 2004 with fellow Massachusetts House members to allow a vacancy in one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats to remain unfilled for 145 to 160 days while candidates prepared for a special election.The Legislature approved the law after its small Republican minority pushed to give then-Gov. Mitt Romney authority to appoint an interim senator to U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s seat in the event Kerry won the 2004 presidential election.Democrats are now proposing the same appointment authority they rejected in 2004, mostly because Kennedy, shortly before his death last Tuesday, proposed giving Gov. Deval Patrick interim appointment authority.”I don’t know if we can keep changing it back and forth,” said Spiliotis.State Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein said she is “kind of undecided” about the Kennedy succession proposal.”I don’t see the harm,” she said concerning the proposal to give Patrick authority to appoint an interim successor who could not run in a special election to pick Kennedy’s successor.”I don’t see a lot of drama around that. It’s another voice for Massachusetts,” Reinstein said.Timing of a temporary appointment is key because Congress is slated to vote on major issues including climate change, energy and health care reform this fall. Former Gov. Michael Dukakis has been mentioned in published reports as a possible interim appointee.The field for a permanent Kennedy successor is expanding with prominent names including Kennedy’s widow, Victoria, who will not accept the post, according to published reports. Kennedy’s nephew, former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy; Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and at least two members of Massachusetts Congressional delegation have also been mentioned as possible successors.The winner of the special election would finish the remaining two years of Kennedy’s Senate term. The next regularly scheduled election for the Senate seat is in 2012.