TWO TO TANGO:

Dem Hopes?: What the legal options are in New Jersey. (David Kopel, 10/01/02, National Review)

The New Jersey Democratic party's claim that it can anoint a new candidate, based on the political calculation that incumbent Robert Torricelli will probably lose, appears to be baseless. [...]

Note that if a Republican wins, the Republicans could actually take back the U.S. Senate on November 6, since the newly elected New Jersey senator would take office immediately, and not in January 2003.

Read the column for its treatment of the legal issues, but the second point there raises a really interesting scenario, because you'll recall that the same obtains in MO where Jim Talent could defeat Jean Carnahan and be eligible to be seated immediately. Democrats had vehemently objected to that idea, but suppose that there were now two such cases? Precisely how many voters in how many states are the Democrats willing to disenfranchise just so they can cling to power for an extra two months? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 1, 2002 11:02 PM