Counting Down the Days

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

We’ve been talking to the Senate historian, Massachusetts secretary of state’s office, and others who are in the know trying to figure out when and under what circumstances Scott Brown could be seated in the U.S. Senate if he wins tonight.

Any lag between the election and the swearing in could be crucial to Democrats passing health care reform. So it’s an important question, though admittedly there’s a element of political science geekery at play here, too, like for instance when you try to determine the circumstances of Teddy Kennedy’s own 1962 seating almost immediately after his win in a special election.

Eric Kleefeld and Brian Beutler have been hitting the phones for the last couple of days and they sort it out for us in this report. The bottom line is the Senate seems well within its own rules and recent precedent to wait to seat Brown until Massachusetts certifies his election, which as we reported yesterday will take at least 15 days, and probably closer to 20 days.

Latest Editors' Blog
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: