On Tuesday the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that will allow Democratic Governor Deval Patrick to appoint an interim senator to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat. Although no successor has been named at this point, an article in The New York Times says that Paul G. Kirk Jr., a former Kennedy aide and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is a leading candidate. Former Massachusetts governor and presidential nominee Michael Dukakis has also been suggested as a potential choice.

Filling Kennedy’s seat with a person with whom he held close ties and/or political philosophy makes it more likely that this replacement will share Kennedy’s views on health care and labor legislation, including the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Such an appointment would once again give the Democrats a 60 vote majority in the Senate which may enable them to ward off a potential filibuster on these contentious bills, if the bills can be reconstructed to overcome the misgivings of moderate and conservative Democrats who have yet to commit to their passage. These 60 votes may be illusory, however, as Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) continues to suffer from health issues that have kept him away from the Capitol, unless at least one Republican member can be convinced to side with the Democrats on either EFCA or health care reform.