Senate Special Election Will Not Ruin Your Summer TV Commercials

Secretary of State William Galvin announced dates for the Special Election to replace John Kerry in the Senate and they are April 30 for the party primaries and June 25 for the general. The law gave the state some discretion, as the rules require the state to hold an election sometime between 145 and 160 days of a vacancy. Given the presumed lack of a “People's Pledge,” between candidates, and the fact that outside groups will have few other elections to spend their money on in an off-year, there's a solid chance you won't be watching anything but campaign ads while this business gets sorted out. But at least we'll have it over with by July 4th so we can get back to watching our previously scheduled ad programming— mainly, dudes yelling “Hoppah” and Zooey Deschenel asking her phone whether the wet stuff falling from the sky is, in fact, rain.

Also, Galvin suggested that the setting of a date would push any latecomers to make a decision on whether to run in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for a steadier stream of election news. [Boston Globe]