A report out of the Boston Globe reveals some of the internal deliberations going on with Harry Reid regarding a possible Warren VP pick:
WASHINGTON – Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has been actively reviewing Massachusetts rules for filling a US Senate vacancy, another indication of the seriousness with which Democrats are gaming out the possibility of Elizabeth Warren joining likely presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s ticket.
The upshot of Reid’s review is that Senate Democrats may have found an avenue to block or at least narrow GOP Governor Charlie Baker’s ability to name a temporary replacement and prevent the Senate from flipping to a Democratic majority if Warren were to leave the chamber. That suggests the issue is not as significant an obstacle as Reid previously feared.
Link to Story
In short, Harry Reid, according to the report, is now very open to a Warren vice presidential bid. He said the following:
“If we have a Republican governor in any of those states the answer is not only no, but hell no,” Reid told MSNBC on May 23. “I would do whatever I can and I think most of my Democratic colleagues here would say the same thing.”
This report strongly implies that he has now changed his mind and is increasingly open to an Elizabeth Warren Vice Presidency. Interestingly, Reid is working with Marc Elias, General Counsel for the Clinton campaign, on this research:
But subsequently Reid commissioned a review by Washington election law attorney Marc Elias (who is also the general counsel to the Clinton campaign, and has advised Warren on legal matters in the past). The review only focused on Massachusetts, and Reid did not conduct such a follow-up review on any other state, according to the person source close to Reid.
It’s interesting for several reasons. We know of reports that highly ranked Clinton campaign operatives have been pushing hard for Warren. We now also see that Marc Elias, who is the campaign’s lawyer, is working with Reid, and that Elias has also worked with Warren. I would not be shocked if Elias is also advising the campaign on the same matters. If there is a legal review of this type, it suggests that the Clinton campaign is very serious about a prospective Warren VP pick.
The most immediate downside to a Warren Vice Presidency has always been that it puts a Democratic Senate seat in danger. This report implies that Reid is more confident than previously about the ability of the party to get a Democrat back into the seat in short order, even if Gov. Baker appoints a Republican.
There are a couple of ways that the process could work, keyed to the timing between an appointment by Massachusetts’ Republican Governor Baker and an eventual special election that would be held. The story states that the most likely scenario would be as follows:
A more likely scenario would be that Warren would start the clock ticking for a special Massachusetts ballot only if Clinton won, with a intent-to-resign letter dated the day after the Nov. 8 national election.
That would give Baker’s temporary appointee less than three months to serve between inauguration day and the special election. While that might prevent a Democratic majority from taking over in January, the damage, from a Democatic perspective, might be limited to a short period of time until Massachusetts’s Democratic-leaning electorate went to the polls to elect a senator in a special election.
In sum, this has to be viewed as very welcome news for anyone who would like to see a Clinton/Warren ticket.