[Kaisersrsic]

You suggest that the "term" is what the statute allows to be filled, rather than the "vacancy." Although, I expect the U.S. Supreme Court to agree with you in the end, I don't think that the Dems will. The word "term" does not appear in the statute.

[FlameThrower]

A vacancy can only be for the term! Carnahan is now running for the 4 year left in her dead husband's term!

[Congressman Billybob]

State law cannot trump the US Constitution. The Constitution is "the supreme Law" as it says in its text. Per the Constitution, a Governor of any state can appoint someone to take the position of a deceased, resigned, jailed, Senator, but not to exceed two years, when there must be another election.

But this applies only to the extent that the Senator who goes back to the Mother Ship by whatever means has time left on his, her term. Torricelli's term is almost up.

The only route to get someone other than Torricelli on the ballot now to replace him as a candidate, will be a New Jersey court decision that violates NJ law. However, there are plenty of hard-wired Democrat judges in NJ. So I think the Forrester Campaign has to prepare for exactly that possibility.

Assuming a "new" Democrat gets on the ballot, he/she can be charged with "cheating" from the get-go, because of the manner of getting on the ballot. After all, the charges against Robert ("the Public Official") Torricelli have been around for years. If the Democrats did not want the legal consequences of his last-minute resignation as a candidate, they should not have supported him so whole-heartly up until Sunday night.

My column this week is SQUARELY on point, "Death as a Political Strategy." Use the third link below.

Congressman Billybob

Click for "Til Death Do Us Part."

Click for "to Restore Trust in America"

Click for "Death as a Political Strategy"

[fightinJAG]

I agree with you---"term" should not be confused with "vacancy."

Just because Torch is off the ballot does not mean there is, yet, a vacancy. He has not resigned from the Senate. Basically, his former opponent is running unopposed at the moment.

Although if you can vote for a dead man, I suppose you could vote for a man who's not running.