The Daily Background
| Please, for the love of God, make it so!
by Arlen Parsa
Did I mention I’m in Illinois?
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, issued the following statement today on plans to introduce an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to end appointments to the Senate by state governors and require special elections in the event of a Senate seat vacancy.
What are the chances of this sort of thing actually passing? Well, the last time the country approved a constitutional amendment was in 1992 (and the bill that originally proposed it had been waiting around in committee for 202 years before it was finally ratified). But, to be fair, this sort of amendment thing isn’t totally unprecedented. After all, until the 17th Amendment passed in 1912, the public didn’t elect members of the US Senate; individual state legislatures did. Additionally, it should be noted that the Constitution does mandate special elections for US House seats.
[…] Because of a deal worked out between Lynch and Senate Republicans, he will appoint a Republican to fill out the last two years of Gregg’s seat, thus not shifting the overall balance of power (and actually letting the people decide who will represent them). Lame. In both cases, if there was a special election, a Democrat would almost certainly have won. Just another reason to support Senator Feingold’s proposed constitutional amendment to make Senate replacements democratic… […]