Lawmakers push for voters to fill Senate vacancies
By KATHLEEN MILLER - The Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Amid allegations that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell President Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, state lawmakers across America are pushing to give voters – not governors – the power to fill similar vacancies.
Lawmakers in Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado and New York have introduced bills to require special elections for open Senate seats.
Although such elections could be time-consuming and costly – Minnesota officials estimate that a statewide special election there would cost $3.5 million and Maryland officials said they would need about four months for one – supporters argued that the choice should be left to voters.
“An appointment by a governor warps the normal democratic process in that one voter – the governor – gets to choose who gets to be a senator,” said Maryland Delegate Saqib Ali, who was inspired by what he calls the “Blagojevich imbroglio” to introduce a bill in his state.
Vacant House seats already require special elections, but 38 U.S. states give governors the sole power to appoint interim senators until the next regular congressional election, meaning a temporary senator can serve up to two years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Four of those states – Arizona, Hawaii, Utah and Wyoming – require governors to pick someone from the departing senator’s political party.
Only 12 states require special elections, and most allow their governors to appoint someone to serve until then.
In addition to giving up his own Senate seat, Obama made Delaware Sen. Joe Biden his vice president and appointed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg and Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar to cabinet posts, leaving four more open seats for governors to fill this year.
“We’re just thankful that Illinois is the mess that it is,” said New York Assemblyman Rory Lancman, a Democrat from Queens. “Otherwise New York would be the leading contender for the biggest circus during a Senate appointment process.”
New York Gov. David Paterson went back and forth about picking Caroline Kennedy to fill Clinton’s seat. She withdrew and Paterson chose Democratic Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, angering some who didn’t know her and others who didn’t like her opposition to gun control.
“The governor would have been better off had the public decided who our senator is,” Lancman said. “There’s a saying that when a governor makes an appointment he creates 10 enemies and one ingrate.”
