Last modified: Saturday, June 26, 2004 11:56 PM EDT EDITORIAL: Lots of baloney on Beacon Hill It's hard to tell which party on Beacon Hill is more full of baloney. The latest case of partisan politics involves the filling of vacancies in the U.S. Senate. That's an important issue since U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., could very well be elected presi dent in November. Control of the Senate may hang in the balance, affecting public policy from Maine to California. Democrats last week pushed through a bill call ing for Senate vacancies to be filled by special election rather than guber natorial appoint ment. The vote fell strictly along party lines, 32-8. It's no surprise that Democrats would support the bill. They don't want Gov. Mitt Romney appointing a fellow Republican to replace Kerry. And they know that veteran members of the congression al delegation -- including U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, who repre sents part of the Attleboro area -- would have a distinct advantage in terms of name recognition and how much campaign funds they have in the bank. Yet Democrats are painting the bill as a win for democracy. `` Let the people vote. We heard that over and over and over, and still over again recently from the executive branch during the gay marriage debate,'' said state Sen. Brian Joyce, D-Milton. `` What could be more democratic than to let the people vote?'' The GOP argument Republicans are equally full of baloney. `` It's a power play to change a long-standing tradition that has stood for each governor for decades,'' state Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, said. `` It's an attempt to stack the deck and fix the cards.'' Tradition, however, has noth ing to do with it. The deck is now stacked in the Republicans' favor, and they, understandably, don't want it changed. Brown and other Republicans cried foul earlier this year when Democrats set the date for a special election to fill a vacant local Senate seat on the same day as the state presidential pri mary. The GOP claimed it had no chance of winning the seat because President Bush was unopposed in the Republican primary while the Democratic race for the White House was still undecided, thus drawing more Democrats to the polls. Despite those cries, Brown won the election, which should be a good lesson for the Republi cans because winning a special election for Senate is easily within the grasp of the GOP. Although it has a reputation of being a heavily liberal Democra tic state, Massachusetts politics is really controlled by independent suburban voters who often lean con servatively on fis cal issues. Bay Staters twice voted for Ronald Reagan. It's been 14 years since a Democrat has been governor, largely because the electorate has sought balance against the heavily Democratic Legis lature. And Brown's win can be at least partly attributed to vot ers' desire to see more balance in the Legislature. Balance is one thing Massa chusetts does not have on Capi tol Hill. Not only is the entire Massachusetts delegation entirely Democratic, they are all middle-aged white men. Suppose the GOP nominated a woman or a minority to fill Kerry's seat. That candidate would undoubtedly receive lots of financial backing from national Republicans interested in picking up a seat in the close ly-held Senate. Money should not be a factor. The Republican can didate would likely go unopposed in the primary. The Democratic party, meanwhile, could face a tough primary fight, leaving the nominee battered. A woman or minority candi date, running on a platform of bringing diversity to the Senate, would make an attractive candi date to suburban independents, especially those who have sup ported Reagan, former Gov. William Weld and now Romney. What should be done The bottom line is this: Voters should decide who their repre sentatives will be. The best way to do this is to hold a special election to fill Senate vacancies. And that's the way it should remain, not changing when con trol shifts to the other party. That way, the voters will let the best man -- or woman -- win.