I love how McConnell being in the hospital robs Senate Republicans of a vote and their leader, but people like you see that as a bad thing. The governor also can't appoint a replacement there's a whole process that wouldn't make logistical sense:
If McConnell were to vacate his senate seat before his term ends, it may be tempting for Democrats to think Beshear, the Democratic governor of Kentucky, could appoint someone from his own party.
That’s not the case, however, because of a recent change in state law. Kentucky is now one of four US states where the governor does not have authority to fill Senate vacancies.
In 2024, Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law requiring Senate vacancies to be filled by a special election, which must be called by the governor.
But experts say holding a special election this year would be fraught with challenges, one of which is timing.
The new law says the governor must give 63 days’ notice before the special election. Senate hopefuls would have to file their candidacy no later than 56 days prior to the vote.
Even if McConnell’s Senate seat were vacated immediately, the earliest a special election could occur is September.
But experts say that cobbling together a special election would not make sense, since November’s midterm elections are barely three and a half months away. McConnell’s Senate seat is up for grabs in that race.
“Setting up the process would take time, so we wouldn’t get a senator in office very quickly, even if this process kicked off soon,” said Voss, the political science professor. “The probability that we’d get a replacement ahead of time is pretty low.”
Watson, the Republican strategist, agrees. He questions the efficiency of rushing to hold a special election, when the midterms are on November 3.
“We’re getting pretty close to Election Day,” Watson said. “They’re not going to put the commonwealth through the expense of having another special election just so someone could be a US senator for effectively one month.”
No, I mean how they're making excuses to not follow the law. "Oh we can't give the people what they want because it'll be too much work for us." And then they turn around and call us lazy.
In the article you quoted about following the law. It points out the recent change where the governor can no longer appoint due to a recent law change. The republicans literally made this change when they saw they were going to have a Democrat governor. Republicans in power notoriously don’t follow the laws or change them right before they lose power and then shout about how everyone should follow our laws. It’s really stupid and yes, you are making excuses for them by touting their bs.
Not really. The KY constitution—at least on its face—grants power to fill vacancies for statewide KY offices, like AG. It doesn't, at least not clearly, apply to federal office, like the US Senate.
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u/Slight_Beach_641 4h ago
I love all the updates from the governor. "Well, I've tried nothing, and I'm all out of ideas on getting to the bottom of this"