y putting Jack E. Robinson back on the ballot as a Republican candidate for the US Senate, the Supreme Judicial Court has helped both Massachusetts voters and the law.
The court's ruling yesterday also leaves both major parties with some explaining to do.
Edward M. Kennedy is by any definition one of the most effective senators of modern times. His candidacies have consistently been endorsed by this newspaper. But it is not healthy for any elected official to serve for 12 years without ballot-box accountability, and Kennedy is no exception. It should not be left to the Libertarian Party to provide the only statewide debate this year.
Democrats did Kennedy no favor by trying to toss Robinson off the ballot by saying rather righteously that there was a sniff of fraud about a handful of his signatures. It was 129 valid signatures placed on forms that had been photocopied with minor errors that were pivotal. Secretary of State William Galvin threw them out based on a previous SJC opinion that the legal requirement that signature sheets be ''exact copies'' of the originals meant precisely that. Galvin said yesterday he was pleased the court has allowed a more sensible level of discretion.
Robinson, who is still being shunned by establishment Republicans, has already fashioned one of the more bizarre chapters in the political history of a state that has plenty.
Robinson lives in Connecticut but grew up in Massachusetts and votes here. He is certainly less of a carpetbagger than Hillary Clinton is in New York. Robinson has also encountered a number of problems in his personal life that have led Governor Paul Cellucci and others in the GOP to abandon him. But he has worked hard; the large number of nominating petitions with only one signature testifies to his strong direct-mail effort.
If Cellucci and other Republicans are so embarrassed by Robinson, they have an option: Find someone who will run in the September primary as a write-in candidate. The task should not be impossible in what will surely be a very low-turnout election - if the party has the will.
