The Green Papers: 2009 General Election
 
Copyright www.flags.net/UNST.htm 111th Congress
Senate Seats by State

This is a list of the current Senate seats and the incumbents occupying them. 36 (34 Class 3 + 1 NEW YORK Class 1+ 1 DELAWARE Class 2) Senate Seats are up for election on 2 November 2010.

There have been 1 death, 4 resignations, and 1 change re: party breakdown in the 111th Senate.

  • 15 January 2009: Senator Roland W. Burris (Democratic, Illinois), appointed by embattled Governor Rod Blagojevich to temporarily fill the vacancy in this seat (pending the regular Election for this seat in November 2010) caused by the resignation of President-elect Barack H. Obama in mid-November 2008, is formally sworn in.
  • 15 January 2009: Senator and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden (Democrat, Delaware) resigns his Senate seat (to which he had been re-elected in the 4 November 2008 election).
  • 16 January 2009: Senator Ted Kaufman (Democrat, Delaware), appointed by Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner as Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden's temporary replacement (pending a Special Election in November 2010), is formally sworn in.
  • 20 January 2009: Senator Ken Salazar (Democrat, Colorado) resigned his Senate seat to become Secretary of the Interior in the Obama Administration.
  • 21 January 2009: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (Democrat, New York) resigned her Senate seat to become Secretary of State in the Obama Administration.
  • 22 January 2009: Senator Michael Bennet (Democrat, Colorado), appointed by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's temporary replacement, is formally sworn in.
  • 23 January 2009: Governor David Paterson of New York appoints Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat: CD 20) to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Mrs. Gillibrand was sworn in and took her seat on 27 January 2009)
  • 30 April 2009: Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania formally switched Parties from Republican to Democrat.
  • 30 June 2009: Senator Al Franken's (Democrat, Minnesota) contested 2008 election was resolved in his favor on 30 June 2009 by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
  • 10 September 2009: Florida Senator Mel Martinez (Republican), who was first elected in 2004, resigned on 9 September 2009. George LeMieux (Republican), who was selected as the replacement Senator on 28 August 2009 by Governor Charlie Crist, was sworn 10 September 2009. Mr. LeMieux will serve out the remainder of the term and does not plan to seek election. This Class 3 seat is up for election on Tuesday 2 November 2010.
  • 25 August 2009: Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy's (Democrat, Massachusetts) passed away from brain cancer at the age of 77. He was first elected in a Special Election in 1962.
  • 24 September 2009: Senator Paul G. Kirk, Jr.'s (Democrat, Massachusetts) was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick to fill the vacancy caused by the passing of Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (Democrat). Senator Kirk was sworn on 25 September 2009.

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Legislative Links     Senate Electoral Classes

           

Massachusetts  6-year term. No Term Limit. Senate Electoral Classes
Partisan Composition: 2 Democratic
  Candidate Independent; (Libertarian; Boston Tea)     Joseph L. "Joe" Kennedy
FEC S0MA00141: $28,046

Political Parties    Parties appear in parenthesis and italics when a candidate receives the endorsement of a given Party and/or official sources indicate a candidate's association with a particular Party but only where the Party in question does not appear on the actual ballot as such.

Major Parties
  Democratic
  Republican
Major Third Parties
  Libertarian
Other Third Parties
  Boston Tea
Independents
  Independent
  Independent Democrat
 

Notes

Candidates for office appear on this page in italics where 'The Green Papers' does not yet have independent confirmation from a legal election authority that the person has been officially certified to appear on the ballot.

FEC indicates the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Campaign Finance Summary "Total Receipts" for candidates for Federal Office.


Senate Class

Class 1 seats end their current terms at noon on 3 January 2013... next regular election for these seats is in 6 November 2012.
Class 2 seats begin their current terms at noon on 3 January 2009... next regular election for these seats is 4 November 2014.
Class 3 seats end their current terms at noon on 3 January 2011... next regular election for these seats is 2 November 2010.

For more information on Senate Classes refer to UNITED STATES SENATE: Electoral "Classes".


Article I, Section 3, clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States reads as follows:

"Immediately after [the Senate of the United States] shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year..."

Pursuant to this Constitutional provision, a three-Senator Committee was appointed by the Senate on 11 May 1789 to come up with a plan to carry out the requirements of that provision; this Committee reported to the Senate on 14 May 1789 a plan to divide the then 20 Senators (there were 10 of the 13 original States represented in the Senate at the time- each having 2 Senators: North Carolina and Rhode Island had yet to ratify the U.S. Constitution, while New York had so ratified but had failed to elect Senators as of that date) into the requisite three electoral Classes: under this plan, three groups of Senators (set up in such a way so as no State had its two Senators in the same group) were to be listed and the first Senator on each list (a list which was set up geographically north-to-south in the manner in which the Electoral Vote for President was counted before Congress at that time, so that two of the first Senators on these lists were from New Hampshire and the third was the first Senator in alphabetical order from Massachusetts) was to each blindly draw a piece of paper numbered either "1", "2" or "3" out of a box in the possession of the Secretary of the Senate. This plan being agreeable to the Senate and so approved, the drawing of lots in this manner was carried out the following day (15 May 1789)- such lot drawing ultimately determining that, to start with, Classes 1 and 2 were to have 7 Senators each and Class 3 was to have only 6 Senators.

When New York finally seated its two Senators during the ensuing Summer, there was another lot drawing (actually a double-lot drawing) on 28 July 1789 to determine the Classes for these seats: since one of the seats had to be Class 3 to make it equal in number to that of the other two Classes so far, the two New York Senators each blindly drew between two pieces of paper, one marked "3", the other which was blank- after this, there was a second lot drawing in which the New York Senator who had drawn the blank paper blindly drew again between two pieces of paper marked "1" and "2": he drew "1" so that New York would henceforth have Senators of electoral Classes 1 and 3.

When North Carolina seated its two Senators after ratifying the Constitution on 21 November 1789, there was yet another lot drawing (on 29 January 1790) in which North Carolina's two Senators each blindly drew between pieces of paper marked "2" and "3" (since there were now 12 States and, thus, 24 Senators: 24 being equally divisible by 3, there would now have to be 8 Senators in each of the three Classes to fulfill the Constitutional provision that, as nearly as was practicable, one third of the Senate be elected every second year).

After Rhode Island- the last of the 13 original States- finally ratified the Constitution on 29 May 1790 and subsequently seated its two Senators that Summer, there was yet one more lot drawing in the First Congress (on 25 June 1790) in which Rhode Island's two Senators blindly drew between pieces of paper marked "1", "2" and "3": one Senator drew "2", the other drew "1"- thereby determining electoral Classes 1 and 2 as those for the Senators from this State. When Vermont was admitted to the Union as the 14th state on 4 March 1791, there was again a double lot drawing as there had been for New York. From that day until this, whenever a new State has been admitted to the Union, these types of lot drawings (the type determined by the necessity of keeping the number of Senators in each electoral Class as close to one third as possible at the time of said lot drawing) between the new State's first Senators is held before the Senate to determine in just which of the three electoral Classes that State's Senate seats will be placed from then on.


 


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