Late yesterday State Representative Chris Fierro's bill calling for the direct election of replacement US Senators was voted out of committee favorably! This means there will be a floor vote soon in the Rhode Island General Assembly.
UPDATE: After we broke the story here about Rep. Chris Fierro's legislation aimed at electing replacement senators, both the the Projo AND the National Journal picked up the story. The NJ story isn't online yet, but here is the text:
A lawmaker in Rhode Island introduced legislation last week that would set up a special election in the event there is a Senate vacancy in the state.
Under current law, the governor has the authority to appoint a senator to serve until the next scheduled election.
Democratic state Rep. Chris Fierro said the allegations that then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell the seat left vacant by President Obama show problems with the system.
"U.S. Senate seats belong to the voters. No one person, regardless of his or her party affiliation, should get to decide who is going to represent the entire state in the Senate," said Fierro. "Inevitably, politics are going to play a role in that appointment, and that's not how the Senate is meant to be constituted."
Earlier in the week, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., announced he planned to introduce a constitutional amendment ending gubernatorial appointments of Senate seats.
The proposal is backed by group of bipartisan lawmakers in the Legislature.
Way to go Fierro!
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Freshman legislator Chris Fierro (D-Woonsocket) submitted legislation to avoid a future Blagojevich problem in Rhode Island.<span> </span>RIFuturists have followed the direct election of every Senator issue for much longer than the recent Blago nonsense, and we were all pretty excited when contributor Rep. David Segal made it to the New York Times on this issue. Now that Fierro and others have got the legislation pending in the General Assembly it seems like a perfect chance to enact progressive election reform.<span> </span>
The bill (2009-H 5094) would require US Senate seats to be filled by a special election, not by a gubernatorial appointment. If a Senate vacancy occurs after July 1 of an election year it would be filled during the regular general electoral cycle.
In discussing the merits of the bill, Fierro said:
U.S. Senate seats belong to the voters. No one person, regardless of his or her party affiliation, should get to decide who is going to represent the entire state in the Senate. Inevitably, politics are going to play a role in that appointment, and that’s not how the Senate is meant to be constituted. The 17th Amendment was meant to stop the Senate from being a body of politically appointees and turn it into one whose members are directly elected, and in that spirit, we should adopt this legislation.