Michael Bennet should promise to resign from the U.S.
Senate.
If the Colorado Democrat, appointed to the Senate in 2009
loses the November election, then he should immediately resign. In
doing so, he would continue a long honorable tradition and he would
respect the wishes of Colorado voters.
Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) should do
likewise.
There are currently six members of the U.S. Senate who
were appointed by their state’s governors to fill vacancies. They
are Roland Burris (D-IL), Edward Kaufman (D-DE), Kirsten
Gillibrand (D-NY), Carte Goodwin (D-WV), and Bennet and
LeMieux.
Illinois is holding a special election next month to
coincide with the regularly scheduled election for a new six-year
term for the Senate seat previously held by Barack Obama. The
special election and general election ballot names are
identical.
The winner of the special election will fill the remainder
of the current Senate term that expires on January 3, 2011.
Burris declined to run for a full six-year term when corruption
allegations
arose. The winner of the November special election will immediately
assume office.
Kaufman has been serving in the Delaware Senate seat
vacated by Joe Biden when he assumed the vice presidency. The
winner of the November 2010 election will fill the remainder of the
term that ends in January 2015.
Gillibrand is running to fill the balance of the term
(until January 2013) of the seat held by Hillary Clinton before she
was confirmed as Secretary of State. Gillibrand currently holds a
double-digit lead over her Republican challenger, according to the
most recent
polling.
A special election is being held in November to fill the
remaining two years of the term in the Senate seat previously held
by Robert Byrd. The appointed incumbent,
Carte Goodwin, is not running in the special
election.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist (R) appointed LeMieux to
fill the remainder of the unexpired term of the Senate seat
occupied by Mel Martinez when he resigned in 2009. Unlike
Colorado’s Bennet, LeMieux is not a
candidate for election to a full six-year term that would begin in
January 2011. Still, he has the same moral obligation as Bennet to
resign after the November election.
Michael Bennet is
running for a full six-year term as Senator. He was appointed to
the seat held by Ken Salazar until Salazar was appointed Secretary
of the Interior. The regularly scheduled election for this seat is
November 2010.
A promised resignation from Bennet is crucial to Colorado
voters. The state is not holding a special election to fill the
remaining 62 days of the six-year term of Salazar’s former Senate
seat. However, in nearly every identical situation the incumbent
Senator who was appointed by a governor resigned the seat so that
the people’s choice could immediately be sworn in. A direct benefit
to the state is that the newly elected Senator would have seniority
over the other members of the new Senate class who would assume
office in January 2011.
The unwritten rule is that a Senate incumbent who was not
elected by the voters would resign after the election so that the
Senator-elect could immediately take office. A resignation also
honors the will of the voters who chose to turn back the de facto
caretaker of the Senate office. Countless examples abound of this
time-honored resignation tradition.
Harlan Mathews (D-TN) was appointed in January 1993 to the
Senate seat held by Al Gore when was elected vice president.
Mathews did not run in the special election in November 1994 to
fill the balance of the term (two-years) and resigned on December
1, 1994 so that election-winner Fred Thompson could immediately be
sworn into office.
North Dakota’s Jocelyn Burdick (D-ND) was appointed to the
Senate seat upon the death of her husband in September 1992. She
resigned following the November election to allow Kent Conrad to
fill the remainder of Senator Quentin Burdick’s term in office
before Conrad’s own term was scheduled to begin.
Harrison “Pete” Williams (D-NJ) resigned from the Senate
following his Abscam corruption conviction in 1982. Republican
Nicholas Brady was appointed to fill the Senate seat. Brady was not
a candidate in the November election and resigned before the term
was to expire, making way for Frank Lautenberg (D) to be sworn in
ahead of his Senate class.
In fact, this tradition has been honored by appointed
Colorado Senators in the past. In September 1932, Colorado’s Walter
Walker (D) was appointed to the Senate upon the death of Charles
Waterman. Walker lost the November 1932 election to Karl Schuyler,
who was sworn into office on December 7.
Also in Colorado, Alva Adams (D) was appointed to the
Senate in May 1923. He lost the November 1924 election to a full
term and left the Senate that month. He was succeeded by
election-winner Republican Rice Means on December 1,
1924.
Of course, there have been the rare exceptions. The
political theater and late night TV punch line in Minnesota that
was the governorship of Jesse Ventura had ties to the last
appointed Senator who refused to resign. Minnesota Reform Party
founder and Ventura’s 1998 campaign chairman Dean Barkley was
appointed by Ventura to the Senate after the death of Paul
Wellstone. Barkley refused to resign when Norm Coleman won the
November 2002 election.
There have also been political shenanigans that have
delayed a Senator-elect from immediately taking office.
Paul Kirk, Jr. (D-MA) was appointed as the caretaker of
the seat formerly held by Edward Kennedy (D). Republican Scott
Brown defeated the Democrat candidate for the seat in a January 19,
2010 special election. However, Massachusetts officials delayed
certifying Brown’s election victory in an attempt for Kirk to be
the 60th vote in favor of ObamaCare. Brown was not sworn into
office until February 4, 2010.
The partisan actions by Massachusetts politicians
underscore the importance of Bennet’s resignation should he lose
the election. Congressional Democrats have vowed to hold a
lame-duck session following this year’s mid-term elections.
Democrats are expected to suffer significant election losses in
November.
It is widely anticipated that Democrats will play the role
of sore losers and use their
lame-duck majorities to ram through
legislation that is widely opposed by the majority of
Americans.
Everything from
tax hikes to the onerous “cap-and-trade” legislation will
likely be on the table.
Democrat incumbents, who were opposed to voting on such
legislation before the election and who will no doubt be bitter
following their election defeats, may vote in favor of treacherous
legislation as political payback to the voters who turned them out
of office.
The Maginot Line to preventing the passage of several bad
bills lies in the Senate where every single vote counts. There is
little doubt a lame-duck Bennet would vote in lock-step with Senate
President Harry Reid (D-NV). Therefore, Colorado voters should
demand a resignation promise from Bennet in the closing days of the
campaign. It could be the deciding issue in what is now a
very tight Senate race.
