So I decided to send my local representative an email the other day asking for support of an interim appointment to fill the Senate vacancy left by Ted Kennedy.
For those of you not familiar with the Bay State representation, the Dems control a super-majotiy in the State House of Representatives (143 Dems to 16 GOP). Now, my shit luck, is that my rep is a Republican. . . one of the 16 left.
My email
Dear Representative xxxxxx,
I figure you are getting a ton of these right about now, so I thank you for your time reading mine. For the vacancy left by Senator Ted Kennedy, I think we should fill his spot in the interim. Since Ted was a Democrat and his (theoretical) replacement would be a Democrat, I see the situation as a 'push'.
May I suggest a future law that would fill the interim spot with a person from the party of the person leaving office. So if a Democrat leaves a vacancy, then a Democrat would be placed as the interim? I believe some states (Texas, Arizona & Wisconsin ??) have a similar arrangement?
Thank you again for your time,
And my Reps response back
I would like to thank you for taking your time to personally write me regarding this issue. Unfortunately, I am not going to be in support of a change that would affect the current vacancy. My good friends and colleagues in the Democratic party have had seven chances to put in-place a temporary replacement, and all seven times have not voted for it. In all actuality, if Senator Kennedy had not pushed for this back in 2004, we would not be discussing yet another change. With all due respect to the late Senator, I cannot support something that is pure party politics. Please do not hesitate to contact me again, in the future, should the need arise.