[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/04/art.lynch.gi.jpg caption="Rep. Stephen Lynch has obtained the necessary paperwork to run for Senate."](CNN) - Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat, obtained the necessary paperwork Friday to run for the Senate seat long held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, according the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office.
Lynch's move comes a day after Democrat Martha Coakley, the state's attorney general, officially kicked off her campaign for the seat. A primary election has been set for December 8 while the general election will be held on January 19.
Lynch, whose district includes Boston's southern suburbs, has served in Congress since 2001. Before that he spent close to a decade in the Massachusetts House and Senate.
He's a DINO – Democrat in Name Only – far too conservative to be Kennedy's successor
I am particularly interested right now on the position of any of the candidates for Senate on health care reform. As far as I am concerned, I will not support a candidate who is not strongly behind a public option. I find it disappointing that the single payer option is not even on the table. The big health firms spend too much on lobbyists and donations to campaign funds of politicians. That is all part of their overhead. They want as little reform as possible. I think we now have too many "corporatists" in Congress. As we become more of a Corporate Republic, I ponder the questios:: For whom should we vote and to what do we pledge our allegiance?
As a lifelong Democrat with great love and admiration for the Kennedy family, I think all these comments referring to Republicans are not essential, Senator Kennedy embodied crossing the isle for political reason, and our current Senators do not have any intentions of doing that so right now I think Mitt Romney looks great as well as anyone associated with the Kennedy name. This country needs representatives and congressman willing to listen to the voice of the majority of Americans, not pursue interests of their own.
Ramoth...You're an idiot. Who cares what the late Ted Kennedy wanted. This is a democracy. The voters have the right to choose who they want to represent them.
47 years of no representation where are the republicans or independants. MASSACHUSETTS is in turmoil because of 1party
rule higher taxes and no results.
At the rate the DEMS are going Ma will be broke. If you don't think
so look at the BIG DIG happened under KENNEDY/KERRY'S watch
will go down as the largest public highway project in history and our
great granchild will be paiying it off.
RAMOTH, Kennedy did not have the authority to appoint his successor, he was not a king, just an ordinary senator. Neither does the Governor. According to law, there must be an election.
In order to take Kennedy's place there are prerequisits. You must first be kicked out of college for cheating, kill a young girl, rape waitresses with your senate buddy, cheat on your wife and be the town drunk.
Coakley, Lynch,................, who is next? So far there is no real liberal Democrat coming out. Coakley is too legal to fit in Ted shoe; Lynch is a Republican who pretends to be Democrat. I would rather vote for dead Ted than these two wanna be.
If democrats can have dead voters voting for them, then why can't a dead person (ted) continue to represent them? Why bother with an election at all? (Elections are costly events.) Ted's ghost will continue to represent MA from the grave. Heck, I'm even OK with democrats bringing in their own seances and "divining" how ted would've voted on future senate bills.
So what is the point of all the comments here? Are you just upset that "your party" isn't being represented by "the right kind of democrat or republican? Just a big land grab if you asked me.
Oh and Ramoth...please tell my you're joking. Really...no serious...you're joking.
have to say I did like the driving comment. While Teddy may have been a "lion of the senate" he wasn't the saint that everyone's making him out to be. Like they say, apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Just look at how is father got things done.
Well of course it needs to be a Kennedy, the people in Mass. don't have enough sense to vote for anybody else.
Good, we need more Democrats to represent us...they have done so well since having the majority starting in 2006...highest unemployment, higher taxes, increased debt, states closing down for days, education a mess, medicare a mess....oh but wait, it is all Bush's fault....my bad. Lynch is a lightweight and needs to get a real job and live under the laws he helped create...he wouldn't last a day.
@Ramoth
Wow, I didn't realize that Kennedy's will is now the rule of law. This is the kind of foolish arrogance that we don't need. What an incredibly ignorant remark. The people of the state should decide.
Mr. Obama is a Marxist/Leninist. I will not allow my children to be brainwashed by this bastard during school hours, or any other time for that matter.
Mr. Obama either needs to back off his push to destroy the Constitution and inplement a Soviet era style dictatorship or he needs to step up to the plate. His daughters need to be in D.C. public schools just like any kid. He can't have his dictatorship of the proletariat while his daughters and wife live as pasha divas.
Hi farhorizons It might be hard to find a "normal human being" to represent the people of Massachusetts.
Your choice is extreme lib or extreme lib light.
Hey Ramoth... state law is state law... it doesn't matter what Senator Kennedy's last wishes were. I'm a proud democrat, but this is not a partisan issue... it's whatever state law dictates. If Ted Kennedy wanted the Governor to appoint his successor then he should have dissuaded the state legislature from changing the law to require a special election around 2004 when it looked like Kerry might be vacating his seat for the White House.
I don't know why we have so many liberals up here, since most Irish-Catholics and Italian-Catholics are so far to the right they can not SEE the "left". Someone like Bill Weld was a "Clinton Republican" and would be good here. And really Ramoth – who CARES what Ted Kennedy's "last will and testament" even says?? The position is ELECTED – not INHERITED! Jesus – you and your ilk are what makes Massachusetts a political garbage disposal.
No comment
Never heard of this guy before nor do I recall Ted Kennedy ever mentioning his name.
CNN it would be helpful if you would just come clean and say you have a left-wing bias. It might stop all your bitter and angry viewers from wriing their nasty unfounded comments.
Go for it!
This is the Real Issue Americans....Lynch or any eligible American can run for this very important seat. I wish the Congressman well!!
Wow. "Don't recall Kennedy ever mentioning his name". Who cares? Ted is gone.
Ho hum, another liberal Massachusetts senatorial candidate, toe the liberal line Massachusetts, you kept sending that idiot Kennedy back to the Senate for 43 years when at least 30 of it should have been doing time in prison for murder.
Thank you Paula from Canada. You are absolutely correct. The tone of discourse here have sunk to an alltime low (witness the comments of "letecia") The tone is reminiscent of the last days of the Weimar Republic . The New Josef Goebbels is Rupert Murdoch.
As for the new A. Hitler....well, Glenn Beck is sure trying hard.
There are people out there who will not, under any circumstances, accept the results of the 2008 election, and will say or do anything to nullify it. There are some who are now hinting at assasination.
The question that must be asked is when free speech becomes seditious speech.