Posted on 01/19/2010 4:33:37 AM PST by Libloather
Winner May Not Be Sworn in Until February
By Kathleen Hunter and Emily Cadei, CQ-Roll Call
Jan. 19, 2010 – 6:47 a.m.
The office of Majority Leader Harry Reid says there will be no attempt to swear in a new senator until Massachusetts gets all the right paperwork to Washington. Appointed Sen. Paul G. Kirk Jr. , a Democrat, in the meantime will keep the job and cast the votes. “When there is a certified winner in Massachusetts, the Senate has received appropriate papers, and the Vice President is available, the successor to Sens. Kennedy and Kirk will be sworn in,” said Regan Lachapelle, a Reid, D-Nev., spokeswoman.
Actually, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. isn’t essential to the process, even though he is president of the Senate; there’s plenty of precedent for a swearing-in to be handled by substitutes.
But there’s no substitution for the proper paperwork.
Federal law requires cities and towns to wait 10 days to receive military and overseas absentee ballots that were mailed by Election Day. From there, the municipalities forward their returns to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, who sends the result to the governor’s office for certification. The governor, secretary of the governor’s council and secretary of the Commonwealth each must sign the certification.
William Galvin, a spokesman for the Secretary of the Commonwealth, there has “never been an instance of the governor not signing the certification given to him.”
“It will be done as expediently as it has been done in the past,” he added.
Rep. Niki Tsongas , D-Mass., was sworn in more quickly after her 2007 special election victory because the House requested a letter from Massachusetts saying it appeared Tsongas had won based on unofficial returns. The Senate, Galvin said, doesn’t do that.
In fact, when Democrat Al Franken was the by-a-hair Senate victor in Minnesota in November 2008, the Democratic leadership didn’t try to install him in office until Republican Norm Coleman had exhausted all of his legal challenges and the state had officially certified the outcome of that race. That meant no swearing-in until July.
However, if Republican Scott Brown wins a clear victory over Democrat Martha Coakley, the GOP may argue that Reid should use a different standard this time, since the Senate has the ultimate say in designating criteria for seating its members.
Massachusetts law AND Senate precedent.
The Senate has twice ruled that the term of an appointed Senator ends at midnight of election day, and that the seat is vacant until the elected Senator is certified.
IF they try this, and IF Kirk attempts to take the floor or vote, the Senate GOP "leadership" had better stop it, or die trying.
If that is the case, the Republicans should boycott the SOTU.
Uh, Harry I wouldn’t do it.
If Brown carries the day, I believe we all SHOULD be hoping Reid pulls something like this. It will be out there for all of America to see and will do the libs far more harm then any short term good.
Boycotting the SOTU would be a great idea. But, the State-Run-Media would not show that side of the aisle, and just zoom in on the wildly-cheering doofus section on the Left, and then commentators would verbally assault the “obstructionist partisan wack-jobs” who didn’t show RESPECT for “The Messaih”.
If the people of Nevada do their civic duty, he'll be ousted from the Senate.
Unless the Dem wins.
There's nothing more pathetic than a desperate, bitter, vindictive group of people.
The most important thing is that the elected dems in the house and senate know who won, and they are going to be a little more hesitant to blindly follow Obama. They know there jobs are on the line.
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