As 111th Senate Is Set to Begin, Four Seats Still Up in Air

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: As 111th Senate Is Set to Begin, Four Seats Still Up in Air
By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 3, 2009; A03

As the gavel quietly fell yesterday on the final session of the 110th Senate, officials in several states sought to cut through the confusion surrounding a quartet of chamber seats whose future occupants remain undetermined amid succession fights and election recount disputes.

In Colorado, Gov. Bill Ritter (D) is expected to announce today that Michael F. Bennet, the superintendent of Denver's public schools, will succeed Sen. Ken Salazar (D) once Salazar is confirmed as interior secretary this month. In New York, Gov. David A. Paterson attempted to knock down reports that he has decided on Caroline Kennedy as his appointee to replace Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) after she is confirmed as secretary of state, even as key state party officials continued to push for Kennedy's appointment.

In Illinois, Roland W. Burris, the selection of embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) to succeed President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate, filed another legal motion yesterday to try to force state officials to recognize his appointment, which would allow him to take his fight to the Capitol in time for Tuesday's start of the 111th Congress. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, declared that under no circumstances would they agree to seat Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota, who is clinging to a 49-vote lead in the recount of his race against Sen. Norm Coleman, if Coleman files a legal challenge....

When the new session begins Tuesday, the Senate is expected to have 98 members, without those from Illinois and Minnesota.

One of those being sworn in to a new term will be Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). In addition to winning the vice presidency on Nov. 4, Biden was also elected to a seventh term, requiring him to begin the new session that his replacement will soon take over for the next two years. Setting it apart from what is happening in the other states with imminent vacancies, Biden's succession process ended in mid-November with the announcement that Edward E. "Ted" Kaufman, his former chief of staff, would receive the temporary appointment, setting up an open contest in November 2010 for the remaining four years of the term.

According to state laws, the governors of all four states in question appoint the successors, with election set in 2010 for full terms....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010202278_pf.html

[defendandprotect]

1. Didn't they used to have to resign their current office in order to run for another?

Maybe that was a good idea?

[LeftishBrit]

2. I know of at least two other cases where a candidate ran simultaneously for VP and for

re-election as senator.

Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 and Joe Lieberman in 2000. There may be others.

Also, many others ran for president or VP in the middle of their term as governor or senator: Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts when he ran for president; Kerry was senator when he did; etc.

[defendandprotect]

3. LBJ had the law changed --- I think in Texas - so he could run as VP...????

I think it was VP ---