More important than who is going to win the special elections I have talked about in this blog is what they signify. Special elections are not exactly common, but with the high profile battle right now in Congress we all know how important Senators are. I believe it is very important not to just hand over the power to appoint Senators to Governors or state legislatures.
The idea of appointing someone with no political aspirations is attractive, but I’m not sure it is realistic. You cannot really stop someone from running. It would also mean the appointer is giving up an opportunity to help their party. In the end it seems I like the idea, but realize that it cannot be a law.
I think the word interim should always be mention with appointed Senators. People, I believe, often forget that appointed Senators were not elected. I feel sticking the word interim in their title will negate some of the incumbency advantage in holding the seat. Special elections should also be had as soon as reasonably possible. There should still be primaries, and time for military and absentee voters to vote. Having the election sooner though will stress it is not a normal election with a normal incumbent.
I, like most, want each Senator to be a representation of their state. The only way to do this is with fair elections. It is probably true that there is no such thing as a fair election, but we should still try to have them. I hope the right people are elected in 2010 and for the right reasons.
Just for fun my predictions for the elections I talked about are NY – Gillibrand, MA – Coakley, DE – Castle, and CO – Norton.
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