Ailing Kennedy asks for speedy replacement process

WASHINGTON -- An ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy is urging Massachusetts' political leaders to change state law to assure his swift replacement if he has to surrender his seat.

Gov. Deval Patrick and the state's top Democratic legislative leaders did not indicate Thursday whether they would act on Kennedy's request. The legislature, currently in informal session until early September, would have to hold a public hearing and schedule a formal vote, said Secretary of State William Galvin, a Democrat who oversees elections.

"They are not going to entertain it very quickly," he said.

Revelation of the letter came on the heels of an announcement that the publication date of Kennedy's memoirs, originally set for early October, has been moved up to next month.

Aides downplayed any speculation that the moves signalled a worsening of the senator's health. As Massachusetts politicians debated the senator's suggestion in the media, Kennedy was enjoying an afternoon on his sailboat, according to Anthony Coley, a spokesman in the senator's Washington office.

Coley said Kennedy has been sailing "almost every day" this summer.

The letter is dated July 2 but Kennedy did not send it to Patrick until earlier this week, Coley said. He said the delay was because the senator was "preoccupied" with the final illness of his sister, Eunice Shriver. She died Aug. 11.

Norman Ornstein, a veteran Congress-watcher with the American Enterprise Institute, said that Kennedy's letter is a sign that the canny lawmaker is continuing to count votes — and is worried his party might come up short on controversial measures such as the president's proposals for overhauling health care and addressing climate change.

"It's his realization that he may not be around when all these critical votes take place," said Ornstein. "Its going to be very close."

Massachusetts is one of about six states that does not allow the governor to fill a Senate vacancy, says Ornstein. A senior adviser to the bipartisan Continuity of Government Commission — co-chaired by former senators Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican and David Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat — Ornstein is a leading proponent for allowing temporary appointments to vacant congressional seats.