August 26, 2009 State leaders spar over Sen. Kennedy's succession plan Play video

(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) - Even as they mourned Senator Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts leaders paid the legendary politician their ultimate tribute: Politics was alive and well on Beacon Hill as state leaders sparred over the senator's deathbed appeal for a controversial change to state election law.

In a letter sent in early July that only recently became public, the late senator asking legislative leaders and Patrick to support an amendment enabling Governor Deval Patrick to install an interim senator -- almost certainly a Democrat -- before a Kennedy replacement gets elected five months from now.

What political leaders on both sides of the aisle most wanted to talk about Wednesday was how deeply they grieved Kennedy's death and celebrated his decades of service to Massachusetts. But Patrick was willing to take up and support the controversial Kennedy plan for an interim senator, saying, "I think it's a particularly timely proposal." With health care reforms and other major legislation pending, Patrick said, "Massachusetts needs two voices in the U.S. Senate."

Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray said, "Clearly now that the senator is gone there's an enhanced sense of urgency to that request, and clearly given what is at stake in Washington like health care" and transportation and other major bills.

(Kennedy proposed in his letter that the interim appointment go only to someone who would promise not to seek election as a permanent successor when

Many Democrats think -- and Republicans fear -- that that occupant of the second Massachusetts Senate seat could prove this autumn's crucial 60th vote thwarting a Republican filibuster and approving President Obama's sweeping health care plan. That plan had also been a passionate priority for Senator Kennedy.

Massachusetts legislative leaders said Wednesday only that their minds are open.

Senate President Therese Murray, speaking in Hyannis, said, "It is the senator's last request. It is a little bit complicated,'' involving questions of not just the state but federal constitutions. Nevertheless, Murray said, "I think that will most likely be taken up in a timely fashion, and we will explore that option.''

House Speaker Robert DeLeo said only that he was "still gathering information and speaking to folks" and while he can understand arguments for and against, he has not expressed a personal opinion yet.

But Republicans and at least one top Democrat have a lot of concerns about re-changing a law that, ironically, was last amended in just 2004, expressly at Senator Kennedy's request and expressly because of partisan politics. Previously, state law allowed the governor to appoint a replacement U.S. senator until a permanent successor was chosen in the next statewide election.

But in 2004, with Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry running for president, Senator Kennedy feared that then-governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, would name a Republican to fill Kerry's seat if Kerry won. Kennedy persuaded legislative leaders in 2004 to amend the law to the current requirement that a replacement be chosen through a special election 145 to 160 days after the Senate seat became vacant for whatever reason.

But once there was again a Democratic governor, Patrick, Kennedy went back this summer to supporting a process of gubernatorial nomination to fill the Senate seat -- but in this case, only for the 5-month time period before the special election chose the permanent replacement.

Massachusetts House Republican Leader Bradley H. Jones said that "while we regret the senator's passing, the law that he wanted and that the majority wanted has been activated by his passing ... The law is the law, it's been activated, and we should adhere to it.''

And Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, a Democrat, said, "I think we would be doing a disservice to his legacy if we tried to rush this through and do it in a partisan way.'' Cahill said he was especially reluctant to see such a major change to the law only five years after it underwent a major amendment, and said in his view it is more important "to do health care right than to do it quickly" by sending to Washington a short-timer who could be the 60th vote for the Obama health plan.

And Joseph McEttrick, a Suffolk University Law Professor who happens to serve on his town Democratic committee in his hometown of Milton, said he thinks in light of recent influence-peddling scandals in Illinois and other states around governors picking senators, the 2004 law change to a special election probably stands up as the best public policy. "Even if it was done then for political reasons," McEttrick said.

Currently Massachusetts legislators aren't scheduled to take up the interim senator amendment until mid-October, when it comes before the legislative committee on election laws.

But on Beacon Hill, Democrats overwhelmingly have the votes to make the change any time they want -- or, as some political insiders theorize, whenever leaders in Washington decide they need the 60th vote for health care or another Democratic priority so urgently that they need a second Democratic senator from Massachusetts.