If Corzine loses, look for Dems to change the Senate appointment law, just in case

Massachusetts Legislature has passed a bill that will allow the Democratic governor to appoint an interim United States Senator to replace the late Ted Kennedy.  Five years ago, when there was a good chance that Democrat John Kerry might get elected president, the Democratic-controlled Legislature changed the law so that Republican Gov. Mitt Romney could not appoint Kerry's successor.  The state now has no Senator as voters await a special election.

In New Jersey, where polls show Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine trailing in his re-election bid, some Democratic leaders are talking about a contingency plan that might prevent Republican Christopher Christie from appointing a U.S. Senator, if Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who turns 86 in January, leaves office without finishing the final four years of his term.  If Corzine loses, one plan that will receive consideration, Democratic sources say, would be legislation passed during the lame duck session later this year taking the appointment away from the governor and forcing a quick special election.  Corzine could sign that bill before he leaves office in January.

The GOP's best hope of electing a Republican U.S. Senator could come with the election of a Republican governor.  Democrats, anxious to mainatin their filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, may not want to chance it.  And New Jersey's junior Senator, Robert Menendez, is the Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Click here to read Matt Friedman's 2007 story.

Republicans have not won a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey since 1972, when Clifford Case won a fourth term over former U.S. Rep. Paul Krebs. That was the last time Massachusetts sent a Republican to the Senate.  Only two other states, Hawaii and West Virginia, have gone longer without a GOP U.S. Senate victory.

The last Republican to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate was Nicholas Brady, a Wall Street banker who was appointed by Gov. Thomas Kean in 1982 following the criminal conviction of four-term U.S. Sen. Harrison Williams.  Brady did not run for a full-term in the 1982 general election, and resigned in December so that Lautenberg could enter the Senate a week early.

After leaving the Senate, Brady served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Possible candidates to fill Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts include former Democratic National Chairman Paul Kirk, and former Gov. Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee.  If Patrick picks Dukakis, Massachusetts would have the nation's first U.S. Senate delegation made up of former major party presidential nominees.