A Senate committee on Monday signed off on a new bill requiring the Senate to confirm the governor’s appointments to fill vacancies for treasurer, insurance commissioner and lieutenant governor.
The Federal & State Affairs Committee passed out a reworked bill that originally called for allowing political parties to fill vacancies for treasurer and insurance commissioner instead of the governor.
The committee amended the bill so the governor would keep those appointments, but they must come from the political party that elected the treasurer or insurance commissioner.
The governor would have broader discretion if the outgoing treasurer or insurance commissioner was elected as an independent candidate.
In the past, Democratic governors have replaced GOP office holders with Democrats, most recently when Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly replaced former Republican Treasurer Jake LaTurner with Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers.
Former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius named Democratic state Rep. Dennis McKinney to replace Republican Treasurer Lynn Jenkins after she was elected to Congress in 2009.
The new bill also would require the Senate to confirm an appointment to fill a vacancy for lieutenant governor.
The constitution already requires the lieutenant governor and the governor to run on the same political ticket, so legislation isn’t needed to ensure the vacancy would be filled with someone from the same party.
Republican state Sen. Chase Blasi of Wichita offered up the alternative proposal as a compromise to the original bill introduced by Republican Sen. Caryn Tyson.
Blasi said he was trying to answer concerns that the current process was consolidated exclusively with one person but without turning it over to the political parties.
He expressed concern about whether the political parties could fill the positions.
“There was a reason they asked us to have presidential primaries because they can’t manage a caucus,” Blasi said.
“That’s why we need to do something like this,” he said.
Democratic state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau of Wichita said she saw no reason to change the current law.
“I think what is already in statute…is working, it’s not broken,” she said.
Tyson’s original bill that would have allowed the state political parties – not the governor – to fill vacancies for insurance commissioner and treasurer.
The vacancy would have been filled by the political party of the treasurer or insurance commissioner who left office.
The replacement would have been chosen at a state party delegate convention, similar to how local conventions of precinct committee members fill vacancies in the Legislature.
The convention would have been called by the state party chair. The convention would have been convened within 21 days of when the vacancy occurred.
The delegates to the convention would have been the state party committee members.
The officers of the convention would have been the officers of the state party committee.
Filling the vacancies for state treasurer and insurance commissioner can be changed by a new law enacted by the Legislature.
Changing the process for attorney general and secretary of state, however, would require a constitutional amendment that would have to be approved by the voters.
The Federal & State Affairs Committee put off working Tyson’s other bill that would have allowed political parties to fill vacancies for U.S. Senate.
The attorney general’s office warned that might violate the U.S. Constitution because the 17th Amendment requires appointments to be made by the executive.
While she said that was an opinion that had not been tested, Tyson said she was open to other alternatives that were included in her written testimony to the committee.
She urged the committee to consider other states that hold special elections for filling the Senate openings. There are four states that hold special elections to fill Senate openings.
