Ed Markey is running to serve the remainder of John Kerry’s term in the Senate. He’s known as a champion on environmental issues. He arrived in the House of Representatives in 1976, and he obviously has a ton of seniority there. In the Senate, he will be at the bottom of the heap. It’s not even likely that he will be able to land a seat on a committee that has much to do with the environment, at least in the short term. So, The Hill asks whether he will have more or less clout in the Senate majority than he currently has in the House minority. Their answer is that he will have less clout in the short run, but more clout in the long run. That seems about right to me, although I wonder if Democratic members of the House can be said to have any clout at all.
