Digby: "Clinton and Warren: It might be exactly the right ticket at the right time."

[yallerdawg]

6. Harry Reid has been studyin' on this!

In the event of a Senate or House vacancy, Massachusetts currently requires a special election to be held within 145 to 160 days. In the interim, the governor has the authority to appoint a successor. But Reid’s team has identified a portion of the law that allows an officeholder to start the special election clock by filing a resignation letter, but also announcing an intention to vacate the seat at a later date.

In theory, Warren could file such a letter 145 days before the Jan. 20, 2017 inauguration and successfully block Baker from picking any temporary replacement. But that would expose Warren to a potentially awkward position. If Clinton lost the November election and Warren wanted to keep her Senate seat, she would have to make the politically difficult decision of rescinding her planned resignation — or run for an open seat that she created.

A more likely scenario would be that Warren would start the clock ticking for a special Massachusetts ballot only if Clinton won, with an intent-to-resign letter dated the day after the Nov. 8 national election.

That would give Baker’s temporary appointee less than three months to serve between Inauguration Day and the special election. While that might prevent a Democratic majority from taking over in January, the damage, from a Democatic perspective, might be limited to a short period of time until Massachusetts’s Democrat-leaning electorate went to the polls to elect a senator in a special election.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2016/06/03/harry-reid-studies-legal-scenarios-for-filling-senate-seat-elizabeth-warren-gets-vice-presidential-nod/3FSrNJlAhqRoiWt6iQMK7J/story.html