A Massachusetts-based pro-family activist thinks it's likely that recently retired Democratic Congressman Barney Frank will be appointed as a replacement for Senator John Kerry should he become Secretary of State.
Frank has confirmed to The Associated Press that he asked Governor Deval Patrick last week to appoint him as interim senator until a special election is held to fill Kerry's seat. Under state law, the governor must appoint an interim senator if the Senate confirms Kerry as secretary of state. A special election would then be scheduled about five months later.
Frank says he is well suited to the job because he will not need a long time to get acquainted with how things work on Capitol Hill. But Brian Camenker, president of the pro-family organization MassResistance, believes it would be "horrible" for the state.
"He hates Republicans, hates conservatives, [and] he is very, very radical," Camenker tells OneNewsNow. "Now if the governor. who is pretty much a radical Democrat himself, were to appoint him, we'd be stuck with him for two or three months and it would be ridiculous. It would be horrible."
According to the MassResistance spokesman, there are political reasons as well why Patrick may not appoint Frank.
"Frank does not have a lot of power like he used to," he comments. "He declined to run for re-election because he was basically redistricted out in the sense that they carved up his district in a way that made it very difficult for him to run again -- and he was very angry about it."
So Camenker believes Patrick may appoint a complete unknown to fill the seat temporarily -- or possibly Congressman Ed Markey (D), who has already indicated he wants to run for Kerry's seat and is the apparent frontrunner.
One name being mentioned as a possible GOP contender for Kerry's seat is former U.S. Senator Scott Brown, who lost in November to Democrat Elizabeth Warren.