On the morning of September 25, arguments were heard in Massachusetts Republican Party v Deval Patrick in Massachusetts Superior Court in Boston, case no. 09-4078. In the afternoon of the same day, Judge Thomas Connolly ruled against the Republican Party and in favor of the Governor. The issue was whether H4246 could go into effect immediately or not. Here is the four-page decision.
When bills are passed in the Massachusetts legislature, they don’t go into effect for 90 days, unless the Governor declares an emergency; then the law can go into effect immediately. This bill says Governors may appoint a U.S. Senator to fill a vacancy, and that appointee would hold office until the state can hold a special election to fill the seat. The Republican Party said the Governor had no right to call this an emergency bill, but the Court said Governors have discretion to decide whether a bill relates to an emergency or not.
Well geez… just what did the GOP expect? Fairness??? Even handedness??? Do unto others as you would… oh well Oklahoma ballot access comes to mind.
One more USELESS *emergency* provision in a State constitution — due to party hack executive and judicial extremists being party hack expedient in SUBVERTING the regime.
Should be ALL immediate effect laws unless the law states a later date.
NO delayed dates in the gerrymander Congress laws in the nearly dead U.S.A. Constitution.
Governor,
Talk about underhanded! How dare you change the law of allowing the people to vote in a new senator. I would like to know who all of you think you are? Be sure this will bite you in the butt. What good are laws if you change them on a whim to meet your agenda. If Kennedy wanted a successor then he should have stepped down and allowed the vote for a new one. I would like to know how much they payed you to make this happen. Trust me, I’m not the only one outraged by this, most of the country is.
Don’t forget that it was in 04 the Democrats actually wrote the law they now changed b/c they were afraid who would win Kerry’s seat.
I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I’ve listed below the reasons why the Republicans, holding a majority in the MA legislature, would not have done the same thing if a Republican senator had died and a Republican sat as governor.
Here they are:
So…did I miss any?
Does the MA GOP really want electoral fairness? Do they really want to get revenge on the Democrats for being unfair at the same time? I have the perfect solution:
They can contribute $the remaining $9,000 it would take to place Joe Kennedy (the libertarian) on the ballot in Massachusetts to replace Ted (dead Kennedy). http://joekennedyforsenate.com/
This would do several things:
1) It would confuse large numbers of totally uninformed Democrats, making a Republican victory more likely.
2) It would place a free market pressure on the ballot, so that Republicans couldn’t run a completely spineless socialist candidate, thus further undermining their free market message
3) It would put Joe Kennedy’s free market ideas on the air and radio as the Democrats tried to distance themselves from him, while simultaneously shooting themselves in the foot by giving him free media coverage
4) It would put free market ideas on the air, with Joe as their cogent messenger
5) It would waste lots of Democrat resources, spent fighting Joe Kennedy (Where else can the GOP spend $9,000 and waste over $50,000 of Democrat resources? Can the Dems afford event the chance of losing MA? …No. So they WILL expend the resources…)
Again: If you are a libertarian or a Republican, I urge you to contribute to Joe Kennedy for Senate, and help this free market independent get on the ballot.
There are more than enough petitioning resources in MA right now to put Joe on the ballot.
-Jake Witmer