Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said on Friday that he and President Barack Obama discussed a proposal that would pave the way for him to appoint an interim successor for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and that White House aides have been in frequent contact with the governor about the matter.
In his first public comments about the push to change the state’s succession law in nearly three weeks, Patrick, a Democrat, said that the conversation with Obama took place at Kennedy’s funeral in Boston last month.
The governor told reporters that Obama aides have been in touch with him since then and that they are supportive of a bill that would give Patrick the authority to temporarily fill the vacant United States Senate seat, providing the administration with a crucial 60th Democratic vote in the chamber as lawmakers debate health care reform.
“He and his whole team have been very clear about that,” Patrick told reporters after holding a meeting with his cabinet in Richmond, Mass. where he is recuperating from hip replacement surgery.
Patrick confirmed on Friday that he was considering a list of potential contenders for the temporary seat should that option become available but said he has not decided who he would appoint.
Speculation among political insiders in Massachusetts about who Patrick might choose has focused on the state’s former governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. Also mentioned are and a handful of Democratic Party elders, including Paul Kirk Jr., the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who now chairs the board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy and former state Senate President Robert Travaglini.
UPDATE: More from the Globe, Washington Post and New York Times.
SECOND UPDATE: More from Red Mass Group, the Herald and Michele McPhee.