Friday quiz: Name the voting rights crusader

Which champion of voting rights said the following yesterday?

I'm disappointed at the lengths people will go to disenfranchise voters and to win at any cost.

• Al Gore, recalling voting irregularities in Florida in 2000
• John Kerry, recalling voting problems in Ohio in 2004
• Hillary Clinton, complaining about the plight of primary voters in Michigan and Florida

Would you believe Jim Ogonowski? That's right, a Republican is concerned about the disenfranchisement of voters. Of course, he's worried about opponents disqualifying his voters. But still, it's refreshing to see a Republican in favor of growing the voter pool. I'm looking forward to his fervent support of same-day voter registration, mail-in voting, and strong opposition to identification requirements.

Heh.

Tags: Senator Massachusetts Jim Ogonowski Election 2008 Republican voter fraud

Edited to correct the spelling of "Ogonowski."

Sal DiMasi: Government by Decree

So, the whole thing about needing a special election should Senator Kennedy resign...House Speaker Sal DiMasi says "never mind":

BOSTON — The leader of the Massachusetts House says he will support giving Gov. Deval Patrick the power to appoint an interim successor to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy if that becomes necessary.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature stripped Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of that authority in 2004 because of fears he would name a Republican to replace U.S. Sen. John Kerry if he had been elected president.

Instead, state law now requires a special election for the seat no sooner than 145 days and no later than 160 days after the vacancy occurs.

But House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi said yesterday if Kennedy should step aside or have to be replaced because of his brain tumor diagnosis, he'd be in favor of a gubernatorial appointment.

"That was a good political reason (then)," DiMasi said of taking the power away from Romney. "It's a good political reason to change it back."

No, Mr. Speaker, bald-faced politics was not a good reason then, and would not be a good reason now. If one wants to argue that the law needed to be changed in 2004 because it was a bad law, I can get behind that (although I don't think it was necessarily a bad law). But to suggest that the old law was bad because the governor was a Republican, but now that the governor is a Democrat it was a good idea after all...no.

It seems to me that if the legislature changes the law each time it suits the Speaker or his party (in this case, my party) our government ceases to be a government of laws, but rather government by decree.

Tags: Senator Massachusetts Ted Kennedy Election 2008 Sal DiMasi

Media missing the fine print on possible Kennedy succession

In every article I've read about the procedure to replace Senator Kennedy should he choose to retire because of his illness, the law regarding succession has pointed to a special election between 145 and 160 days after the resignation is announced. Here is this morning's Globe, for example:

The law says a special election would be held 145 to 160 days after either a vacancy is created or a senator declares he or she is vacating the seat. It specifically bars a temporary appointee until voters can choose a replacement.

That is what the law says, but it also says something else, which I have not seen reported anywhere:

If a vacancy for senator is created after April 10 of an even-numbered year, but on or before the seventieth day preceding the regular state primary, the precepts shall appoint the day of the regular state primary and the biennial state election for holding the special primary and special election required by this section.

In other words, if Senator Kennedy were to announce his retirement on or before July 8 (the seventieth day before the September primary) the special election would be placed on the November 4 ballot along with the other races, including the presidential race and the contest for John Kerry's seat. In that case, a special primary would be held on September 16 along with the regularly scheduled primary.

This is in no way to suggest that Senator Kennedy should or will announce a retirement early this summer. I hope along with the everyone else in Massachusetts that Senator Kennedy makes a full recovery. But if the Senator believes that his prognosis is bleak, the timing of a possible decision to retire becomes very important, as the prospect of another election this summer looms.

Tags: Senator Massachusetts Ted Kennedy Election 2008

Sad News

About 1:30 this afternoon, I came across the news bulletin that Senator Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. It is very sad news. Not that I'm sitting at my desk weeping, but the critical illness or death of one of the icons of your youth changes your perspective and has left me feeling a little hollow. A little piece of the world as I've known it appears to be irrevocably changed.

(I felt the same way when Ronald Reagan died. While I was no supporter of his, he was the first president who I was really aware of, and his death left me feeling that a little tie to my life growing up was gone.)

I've known three people who have suffered brain cancer and the two who developed it as adults suffered terribly before succumbing to the disease (the one who survived his fight was diagnosed and treated as a child). Based on what I have read this afternoon, the fact that the cancer was not discovered until after it had begun causing seizures is not good news at all.

Hopefully Senator Kennedy will make a full recovery and return to continue his work as one of the most accomplished Senators the nation has known.

UPDATED: Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia broke down this afternoon when speaking about Senator Kennedy:

Tags: Senator Massachusetts Ted Kennedy