A "key development" in the move to change the law on Senate succession in Massachusetts is the decision by House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D), who has been "publicly noncommittal," to now support a proposal that would give Gov. Deval Patrick (D) the power to name an interim senator in advance of the Jan. 19 special election to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and yes, this is all one sentence.

 

Boston Globe's Matt Viser reports that legislative leaders "believe they have narrow majorities" in the House and Senate to pass the measure, and perhaps as soon as tomorrow. Patrick is said that he would like to sign the bill by Friday and make an appointment within days after that. But it's not that simple, writes Viser:

The bill must still survive Republican attempts to delay or kill it through parliamentary maneuvers. ... [And in the state Senate], President Therese Murray has remained far more reserved in her support, talking with senators but not advocating for the change, according to Senate sources.

One high-ranking Senate official familiar with the vote count said the numbers are there for passage - but narrowly. It is that chamber that Republican Richard Tisei, the Senate minority leader, will try to table the bill with the hopes of delaying it beyond its usefulness, or shaming Democrats who are on the fence over to his side. ...

Republicans don't oppose the concept of an interim senator, but they think it's unfair for Democrats to change the law for this appointment.

They cite, of course, the Democratic legislature's changing the law back in 2004, when the governor did have the power to appoint a senator. But back then, the governor was a Republican (Mitt Romney), and the Dems didn't want him to name a successor to Sen. John Kerry if he were elected president.

IN: Rep. Michael Capuano (D), who will make it official on Friday. Capuano — who holds the House seat once represented by John F. Kennedy, Tip O'Neill and Joseph Kennedy II — is selling himself as closest to the ideals of the late Sen. Kennedy. And he has been criticizing his (thus far) chief rival, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, charging she has yet to be specific on what to do with Iraq or health care. And Boston Herald's Chabot & Van Sack report that even if there is no Kennedy family member running, the family itself may play a significant role on whom the Democrats nominate:

Several Kennedy family members quietly seethed during Kennedy's long illness as Coakley ... put together a behind-the-scenes campaign, announcing it just days after his funeral.

"I truly respected his passing and I thought I should wait," Capuano said yesterday - though he held off on directly targeting Coakley. "Others can make their own judgment about what is the right thing to do."

Other Democrats said to be close to an announcement are Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and Alan Khazei, founder of City Year. Pagliuca may run into some difficulty in having to explain why he backed Mitt Romney over Ted Kennedy in the 1994 Senate race.

OUT: Rep. Stephen Lynch (D), thought to be an all-but-certain candidate, announced yesterday he would not run. The Herald's Chabot writes that Lynch "faced waning support from labor, which is supposed to be his strongest support base." Several unions have already lined up behind Coakley.

Click here for a previous update of who's in/who's out.

NAKED CITY. A 27-year old photograph of state Sen. Scott Brown, now the leading Republican candidate for the Senate seat, resurfaced in today's Boston Herald. It's from a nude centerfold for Cosmopolitan magazine back in 1982, when he was a law school student and modeled to pay for tuition.

Tags: On The Ballot