Massachusetts law originally allowed for the governor to make an appoint to a vacant Senate seat until the next scheduled election. But in 2004 with the state’s junior Senator John Kerry running for president, the Democratic-controlled state legislature amended the law in order to deny then Republican Gov. Mitt Romney from making a Republican appointment should Kerry succeed. That new law would finance an election in five months while the seat remained empty.

Kerry lost, but the law stayed put. Now Massachusetts’ legendary Sen. Ted Kennedy wants the law changed back to its original form. Kennedy’s seat is not up for election until 2012, the senator is stricken with terminal brain cancer and will not seek reelection and, saddening, he may die before then.

Kennedy wants Democratic Gov. Davel Patrick to be able to make an immediate appointment. In a letter published in the New York Times, Kennedy wrote that while he supported the 2004 change he “also believe[s] it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.”

Kennedy is not worried that a Republican will win the special election, but does not want to deny his Democratic Senate colleagues a supporting vote for five months. With health care reform of some kind up for a vote, the Democrats need all the votes they need and in case Kennedy passes away; the senator who has done more than most to advance the cause of universal care does not want his seat empty for five months.

Kennedy, 77-years old, could also still be alive but to sick to cast a vote in which case he would resign to allow for an immediate replacement. Under current law, Kennedy’s seat could remain vacant when the current bill comes up for a vote because the senator, if still alive then, probably will not be able to make the vote.

Kennedy also wrote in the aforementioned letter that Gov. Patrick should appoint someone whom makes the explicit command that he will be a seat holder and not seek election in 2012.

Kennedy is fighting for more than a senate seat here, but his legacy as well.