Delaware's governor has announced whom she will appoint to replace Vice President-elect Joe Biden in the Senate when he resigns sometime before the start of his term on January 6: Ted Kaufman, a longtime senior aide to Biden, who will stay in the seat until a 2010 special election that he will not participate in. The move has been criticized in Delaware by those who think it is an attempt to pave the way for Biden's son, Beau, to win the seat. Beau Biden, Delaware's Attorney General, is in the process of being deployed to Iraq with the National Guard and so cannot be appointed now. But judging by this Politico article, a good chunk of Delaware's political establishment was hoping that Lt. Governor John Carney, who lost bid for governor this year, would end up in the seat.
I can understand why people are upset about Carney. But I still think the appointment choice was solid, for two reasons: One, it reflects voter preference -- they clearly want someone along Joe Biden's line, so choosing his longtime adviser gives them that. Two, as Kaufman recognizes, anyone appointed now who wants to stay in the seat is going to need to be campaigning for the next two years. Better to have a caretaker seat to handle Senate business and let the potential replacements do the politcal work on their own time. But no doubt the dynamics of a 2010 Senate campaign featuring the vice president's son will create some interesting political choices for the Obama administration.
--Tim Fernholz
