The new interim Massachusetts Senator is expected to be named today at an 11 a.m. press conference. His name is Paul Kirk:
Multiple media sources this morning, indeed, are pointing to the 71 year-old Kirk, a Boston-based attorney who served as the head of the Democratic National Committee in the late 1980s. Kirk, perhaps most importantly in this matter, served the late Senator Edward Kennedy as a top-level staffer for nearly a decade prior to his tenure at the DNC.
Kirk is a friend of the Kennedy family and was privately endorsed to Gov. Patrick by Kennedy’s wife and son. It may not be completely smooth sailing however.
There is, even at this final hour, the slight probability of a snag for Governor Patrick. Because the legislature failed to pass the measure with the two-thirds of the vote necessary to create an “emergency preamble”, the bill is not supposed to take effect for 90 days. Patrick can get around that by declaring the bill a response to an emergency situation, which will allow him to waive the 90-day requirement. Not surprisingly, the Massachusetts GOP is crying foul:
Republicans have toyed with the idea of challenging Patrick’s legal authority to declare such an emergency, and legal challenges could also come from citizens.
“This is not an emergency,” state Rep. Paul Frost (R) told The Associated Press, noting that it would be difficult for Patrick to declare an emergency after the State Legislature declined to do so.