The Massachusetts State Senate on Tuesday passed legislation allowing Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim Senate successor to Edward M. Kennedy. The measure was approved by a 24 to 16 vote, and paves the way for an appointment by week's end to fill the seat Kennedy occupied for nearly 50 years before his death last month.

Gov. Deval Patrick will name an interim Senate successor to Edward M. Kennedy. Among the candidates is former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis. (Photo Adapted from: Ludie Cochrane / Barack Obama / AlleyesonJenny / flickr)

    The issue of who will serve as the interim occupant of Kennedy's seat has roiled both Massachusetts and national politics ever since the long-serving senator succumbed to brain cancer on August 25. A vote to choose Kennedy's final replacement will take place early next year, and whoever is named to be Kennedy's interim successor will be barred from running to be his permanent replacement.

    Several names have been floated as possible interim replacements for Senator Kennedy, among them former DNC Chairman and Kennedy aide Paul G. Kirk Jr., Harvard Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree and former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy. The name most often mentioned, however, is one from Massachusetts' past: former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

    Some consider naming Dukakis to be politically dangerous for Governor Patrick, given the state's financial woes and the lingering memory of the economic calamity that took place under Dukakis, Massachusetts' last Democratic governor before Patrick. On Tuesday, however, the Boston Globe captured the mood of many in the state with an editorial titled "Dukakis is the Best Choice to Fill Senate Vacancy."

    In it, the Globe's editorial staff wrote, "The interim senator will have to do more than join the health care debate. He or she will have to represent Massachusetts's interests in hundreds of funding requests and constituent services. Dukakis, as a former Democratic presidential nominee, knows how politics works and can get his phone calls returned. He is far more likely to deliver tangible returns for Massachusetts residents than a career academic or anyone else who has never held elected office. A variety of other names have been bruited about in recent weeks, most of which represent a cleaner break from Massachusetts political history. But Dukakis remains what he's always been: a dedicated student of public policy with a record of serving this state honestly and effectively."

www.truthout.org/092309A