Mitch McConnell, the 79 year old Republican Senator for Kentucky , who just moved to Minority Leader is working with his state’s lawmakers to have them pick someone for his Senate seat (Not the Governor) if he can’t finish his term by 2027….McConnell won rte-election in November…Kentucky Governor Beshear is a DEMOCRAT….
Why now for Mitch?
The Senator appears to be of ill health.…
Few know he is survivor of childhood polo and he has has had health issues the last year….
The Kentucky Governor would surely pick a Democrats to fill in for Republican McConnell if he left the US Senate early … THAT seems to be the Senator worry and reason to try to change things….
Mitch McConnell has compiled a short list of successors in his home state of Kentucky, preparing for the possibility that he does not serve out his full term, Kentucky Republicans tell The Intercept.
The list is topped by his protégé, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and also includes former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft, whose billionaire coal magnate husband is a major McConnell donor, as well as Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a former McConnell Scholar.
Under current law, the power to appoint McConnell’s replacement falls to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. But new legislation McConnell is pushing in the Kentucky General Assembly would strip the governor of that power and put it into the hands of the state GOP.
McConnell’s scramble to secure his legacy comes as his position in the party he effectively built from the ground up is increasingly shaky. McConnell’s denunciation of former President Donald Trump — even as it was accompanied by a vote of acquittal and a pledge to endorse the former president in 2024 if he is the GOP nominee — has brought on calls for his censure by party leaders across the state. A candidate running in McConnell’s mold would face an uphill climb through a primary in the new Republican Party — unless, that is, the candidate has the benefit of incumbency.
The 79-year-old McConnell has held his Senate seat since 1985 and handily won a seventh term last November….
top image…NBC News
image of McConnell ‘s hands in Oct. 2020….Tom Williams/CQ-ROLL CALL, INC/GETTY
I thought elections have consequences when it comes to executives filling vacancies.
At least that’s what Mitch and Republicans told us about filling RBG’s seat.
Typical Republican. Once you don’t like the rules anymore just change em.
This also shows why McConnell ,while still a power in the US Senate ,is no longer a factor in national politics and may also help explain his newly found bravery in confronting his lordship ,Donald Trump.
Mitch knows he’s on his last term .
Accordingly,James’s fascination with every anti Trump utterance of McConnells is of no consequence in the Trump domination of the Republican Party aka The Trump Party.
Maybe the lovely Elaine’s growing legal exposure is making Mitch eye the exit.
The Kentucky Legislature can do what they want in terms of the replacement appointment process. Other legislatures have done the same thing, and the Republicans in Kentucky have the votes to override a veto.
Not sure how the bill is structured. Usually they require a same party appointment off of a predetermined list.
The Recovery Act has passed and it’s a good day.
McConnell and Kentucky GOPer’s deny their Dem Gov to pick a Dem if McConnell steps down…
Kentucky GOP Overrides Veto of Senate Vacancy Plan
“The Republican-run Kentucky legislature on Monday easily overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) veto of a notable bill that restricts his ability to fill any vacancies that arise if one of the state’s U.S. senators dies or leaves office early,” the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
It’s unclear to me (perhaps Jack or Keith would know better) that the legislature of the Commonwealth of Kentucky has the power to arrogate a mid-term U.S. Senate appointment to anyone but the Governor. As I read the 17th Amendment (direct election of U.S. Senators), vacancies should be filled by immediate elections, unless the Legislature gives that power to the Governor. (In either case, the replacement would serve less than two years until a new election rolls around.)
Amendment XVII (ratified 1913)
…
Section 2.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
…
According to my source:
Debate and Ratification
In 1911, one of the senators who had been popularly elected, Senator Joseph Bristow from Kansas, offered a resolution proposing the 17th Amendment. Despite significant opposition, the Senate narrowly approved Senator Bristow’s resolution, largely on the votes of senators who recently had been popularly elected.
After long, often heated debate, the House finally passed the amendment and sent it to the states for ratification in the spring of 1912.
On May 22, 1912, Massachusetts became the first state to ratify the 17th Amendment. Connecticut’s approval on April 8, 1913, gave the 17th Amendment the required three-fourths majority.
With 36 of 48 states having ratified the 17th Amendment, it was certified by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan on May 31, 1913, as part of the Constitution.
In total, 41 states eventually ratified the 17th Amendment. The state of Utah rejected the amendment, while the states of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia took no action on it.
McConnell is supporting a bill that would take away the power of the Governor to choose his replacement.
But should the Legislature decide to remove that power from the Governor (a choice it clearly has, since a state legislature has the power under the 17th Amendment to grant it in the first place), it’s unclear to me whether the vacancy can be legitimately filled except by a special election of the people.
And even if the Republican State Committee or Chairman did make such a choice, and even should the Legislature then try to appoint their selection to the Senate (a power that the 17th Amendment took away from state legislatures), that replacement could not take his or seat without the consent of the U.S. Senate itself (cf. Al Franken vs Norm Coleman in 2009).