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A rule some politicians would like to change


if a United States senator leaves office before completing his term because of death, expulsion, resignation or whatever, the governor has the privilege of naming a temporary successor until the next election is held.

That’s been the practice since early in the last century, when the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and subsequent state laws gave governors that power. In Connecticut, this has allowed Republican governors to replace deceased Democratic senators with Republicans on two occasions and a Democratic governor to appoint a Democrat to succeed a Republican senator who resigned. That’s two Republicans replacing Democrats and one Democrat replacing a Republican, if you’re keeping score.

But now, faced with the possibility, however remote, that the next president could invite Senator Dodd or Lieberman to join a new administration, some Democratic legislators are suddenly struck by the unfairness of it all. "The people have a right to select their choice," said one man of the people, Rep. Christopher Caruso, co-chair of the committee that oversees election laws.

The unfairness issue has arisen, of course, because the governor is a Republican and the senators are identified in the Senate as Democrats even though Lieberman occasionally plays a Republican on television. Rell would be expected to name a Republican successor to Dodd or Lieberman and thereby change the complexion of the next Senate. The Republican replacement would serve until the general election in 2010, which is how it’s worked in Connecticut since 1945.


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When Sen. Francis Maloney, a Democrat, died in January of that year, Republican Gov. Raymond Baldwin named retired Admiral Thomas Hart of Sharon to serve until the next election in November 1946. The admiral, a Republican, was the first of thousands of World War II veterans to serve in Congress and he caused no trouble.

Republican Gov. John Lodge replaced Brien McMahon, the other Democrat who died in office, with Republican William Purtell in 1952 for the few months left in McMahon’s term, again without controversy.

But there was plenty of controversy following the one resignation.

The same Raymond Baldwin, who appointed Admiral Hart, had been governor through most of the Depression and World War II and intended to retire from politics and take a big job with an insurance company when his term ended in 1946, but state Republicans pressured the popular Baldwin to run for the Senate in what promised to be a Republican year.

Baldwin reluctantly agreed to run, won the Senate seat and was miserable in Washington. A liberal Republican, he was frustrated by the party’s dominant conservative wing and after he got into a nasty fight with fellow Republican freshman Joseph McCarthy, Baldwin decided the Senate wasn’t for him.

He asked Gov. Chester Bowles, a Democrat, to appoint him to the State Supreme Court and Bowles was delighted to oblige. On the same day he announced Baldwin’s judgeship, Bowles appointed his former partner in the Benton and Bowles advertising agency, Democrat William Benton, to the Senate.


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There was widespread Republican outrage in Washington and back in Connecticut, where Baldwin’s appearance at a political dinner was greeted with boos from his former Republican friends. In Washington, Sen. Styles Bridges told Time magazine that "everyone on the Republican side this morning was either sick to his stomach or mad as hell."

The Republic survived and Baldwin turned out to be as successful on the court as he was as governor. He ended his career by being appointed chief justice by Gov. Abe Ribicoff, another Democrat.

Democratic legislators would look silly if they tried to change the rules that are in effect in most states. Instead of complaining, they should try to elect a Democratic governor after a 20-year drought.

 

Dick Ahles is a retired journalist from Simsbury. Reach him at dahles@hotmail.com.

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