Republicans and Democrats Seek Special Election To Fill Hillary’s Seat
by Matt at Jan 15th, 2009
In what could be described as a bipartisan vote of no confidence in Governor Paterson, Republicans and Democrats are pushing for a special election to fill the Senate seat that will be vacated by Hillary Clinton when she leaves to serve as Barack Hussein Obama’s secretary of state.
Such a move is hardly unprecedented. Is 2004, the Democrat-controlled legislature voted to do the same thing, to give the blue state’s voters the power to choose to choose a replacement for John Kerry, had he won the presidential election, thus preventing the Republican governor at the time, Mitt Romney, from appointing a replacement of his choice.
The circumstances in this situation make a bill changing the procedure less likely, but perhaps not impossible. There are a variety of factors that could make this bill passing a reality.
- Governor Paterson appears to be completely uninterested in the preference of the voters, and is reportedly favoring Caroline Kennedy.
- Paterson is also pushing a very unpopular budget, giving Democrats political cover for stripping him of the power to fill the seat.
- Paterson is an unelected governor about to make someone an unelected U.S. Senator. That doesn’t sit well with a lot of people.
- Given the recent Senate-Seat-For-Sale scandal in Illinois, a special election removes the chances of impropriety by putting the choices it the hands of the voters, not one single person.
Let’s face it, the seat has been vacant for 2+ years anyway, so the anticipated three months it would take to hold the special election would have virtually no influence in any votes in the Senate, since Democrats already have a comfortable majority. So, there really is no reason to oppose this bill. Even Paterson should support the idea, since he is up for reelection in 2010, and may not want to alienate voters, and/or inspire a primary challenger.