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Working Families Need an Interim Senator for Massachusetts |
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Robert J. Haynes, president, Massachusetts AFL-CIO, writes that the state’s working families need two voices in the Senate during the upcoming weeks of debate on critical issues like health care.
Like the labor heroes we remembered on Labor Day, Ted Kennedy didn’t believe that the American dream was only reserved for the powerful and privileged. While Massachusetts workers lost our biggest voice and best champion for the little guy, we should not have to go without two U.S. senators for months on end. Working families cannot wait that long for full representation; not ever, but certainly not in these times with such monumental challenges facing our nation.
Kennedy believed it was wrong for people to have to risk their lives unnecessarily at work, to be stripped of their pensions, denied health care, or impoverished by the recklessness of banks. He believed a father with an ill child shouldn’t have to choose between being with that child and keeping his job. Now his lion’s voice has fallen silent, too soon.
We can never replace him—but we should refuse to let his seat sit empty. Massachusetts cannot afford to wait until the special election on January 19, 2010, to have full representation. Regardless of why the law is flawed or how it got to be inadequate, we now know it needs to be fixed.
In the coming months, Congress will grapple with health care reform, job creation, energy independence, education funding, issues of war and peace, possible judicial appointments and much-needed labor law reform. Both Massachusetts’ Senate votes will be crucial to breaking congressional gridlock that has become all too common in our nation’s Capitol.
Legislation can be crafted that takes the politics out of the appointment, by ensuring that the temporary interim appointee does not get an unfair head start in a campaign. By constitutionally ensuring that the appointee will not be a candidate in a special election, we can prevent any governor from unfairly advantaging their choice for senator. We have faith that our Legislature can reform the law now and restore full representation to Massachusetts.
Senator Kennedy knew we couldn’t wait; that’s why he made the noble and thoughtful request that the law be fixed to allow for a temporary interim appointment to be our second senator. This is not a situation where we should do it for Teddy. Ted Kennedy wouldn’t want his seat filled as some kind of memorial. We should make this change because it is the right thing to do for us, and that is what he always wanted for Massachusetts. The Legislature constantly fixes flawed laws. They should do so in this instance as soon as possible.
Massachusetts has always spoken out for justice, from Concord farmers who fired the shot heard ‘round the world, to abolitionists who cried out against slavery, to textile workers who marched in the streets of Lawrence to demand fair wages and human dignity—bread and roses. The country’s eyes are on Massachusetts now, waiting to see if we’ll play at full strength in these important debates. We cannot sit by, half-silenced. This Labor Day the working people of Massachusetts want our voice and our full representation restored.
1 Comment
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I’m sorry folks, but this smacks of acting like spoiled children. Senator Kennedy was the one who had the law changed,youse all know the story. If we get to have it both ways then so does the opposition. I prefer not to give any opposition any ammunition. Massachusetts has survived worse then a few months without a senator.