AP: Kirk likely tapped for Kennedy’s seat

UPDATED:

BOSTON (AP) — A Democratic aide says Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will name former party chairman Paul Kirk to temporarily fill the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat.

The aide asked for anonymity to speak in advance of Patrick’s formal announcement Thursday.

The appointment will let Kirk serve in the interim post until voters pick a replacement in a Jan. 19 special election. It also gives President Barack Obama a critical 60th U.S. Senate vote he needs to pass a health care overhaul.

Kirk served on Edward Kennedy’s staff for eight years and is chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s board of directors. He also has been a registered lobbyist for pharmaceutical companies.

Kennedy’s sons, Edward Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., both lobbied for Kirk in separate phone calls to the governor, according to a family confidant and a Patrick aide. The governor scheduled a late-morning news conference at the Statehouse to declare his choice, and aides would not rule out the attendance of Vicki Kennedy, the senator’s widow, as a sign of the family’s approval.

Kennedy died last month of brain cancer, and an appointee will serve until a permanent successor is chosen through a special election scheduled for Jan. 19. The appointment will restore a critical 60th Democratic vote in the U.S. Senate as President Barack Obama pushes to pass a health care overhaul that was Kennedy’s life passion.

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Legislature approved a bill allowing the governor to make an interim appointment after a contentious debate and a whirl of parliamentary maneuvering.

Patrick planned to send a letter to the secretary of state to declare an emergency, allowing him to override a legislative vote that defeated his administration’s effort to make the bill take effect immediately. Normally, legislation faces a 90-day waiting period.

“I recognize the gravity of this decision and I will make it very soon, and tell you just as soon as I do,” the governor told reporters Wednesday night.

The 71-year-old Kirk, a Boston attorney, was close friends with the senator. He and his wife, Gail, live on Cape Cod, and he was among the few regular visitors allowed at Kennedy’s Hyannis Port home before he succumbed to a malignant brain tumor on Aug. 25.

Kirk knows the senator’s staff intimately and would likely be assured of their loyalty given his relationship with Kennedy.

A senior statesman who has never served in political office, Kirk wouldn’t pose a threat to the candidates competing in the special election. The Democratic field includes Attorney General Martha Coakley, vying to be the state’s first female senator, and U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, the lone member of the state’s congressional delegation in the race.

A Kennedy family confidant, who like the Patrick aide requested anonymity to speak about private conversations, refused to reveal whether Vicki Kennedy had also endorsed Kirk. Vicki Kennedy has granted no interviews since her husband’s death, but Patrick revealed recently that she had told him she did not want to be considered for the interim appointment.

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