According to Politico’s Shira Toeplitz, the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office has decided that the special election to replace Robert Byrd will be held in 2012, not 2010. UPDATE: The SoS office’s full statement is here. In November of 2012, there will be not only the regularly scheduled election for the full six-year term, but also a coinciding special election to fill the seat during the lame duck session.
(As you’ve likely read elsewhere today, West Virginia law is decidedly hazy on when the special election had to happen. On its face, state law would suggest that a 2010 election needed to be held, since Byrd’s death occurred six days before the two-and-a-half-year mark until 2012. However, underlying case law supports the conclusion that because the primary has happened and the filing period has closed, the election won’t be held until 2012.)
Regardless of whether the special election was to be held in 2010 or in 2012, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin is charged with the responsibility of appointing a temporary successor. This gets a little complicated for Manchin, as he’s widely considered to have designs on that seat himself (he has previously established a fundraising committee for seeking federal office). Manchin has already established that he won’t appoint himself to the office.
Manchin therefore seems likely to appoint a placeholder, one who won’t get in the way of a future Manchin run. The most often mentioned name is former state party chair and Manchin ally Nick Casey; Casey, however, is up for consideration for a federal judgeship, and may not want to back-burner that lifelong sinecure for two years in the Senate. Current state party chair Larry Puccio (another former Manchin aide and ally) is another possibility. The other possibility would be a widely-respected elder-statesman type appointment, such as ex-Gov. Gaston Caperton. (I hear that soon-to-be-ex-Rep. Alan Mollohan is looking for a new job, but he might not fill the “widely-respected” part of the equation at this point.)
One other item for fans of arcane Senate procedure: Dan Inouye was just sworn in as the Senate President Pro Tem, taking over for Byrd, who re-assumed that role when the Democrats took over the Senate in 2006. The role is purely ceremonial, with no real-world presiding duties, and is generally given to the seniormost member of the majority party. Instead, this is momentous because Inouye (not Harry Reid, as many probably believe) is now 3rd in line in presidential succession, which is the highest an Asian-American (or for that matter, any racial minority, if one doesn’t consider Barack Obama himself) has ever risen in the succession totem pole. UPDATE: A helpful tipster points out the all-racial-minorities part is not quite true: Herbert Hoover’s vice-president, Charles Curtis, was half Native American.
No special election in 2010. One in 2012 to fill the final weeks of Byrd’s term, in conjunction with regular election for the seat.
http://www.sos.wv.gov/news/top…
the last time a special election was held simultaneously with the regular election for that seat (1942), different candidates ran for the two terms due to state law about running for two offices. So if a law or a similar law is in effect, we could have a regular election between Manchin and Capito, and a special election between placeholders.
The 1942 story has to be a weird one.
The incumbent Senator elected in 1936 resigned in 1941 to become Governor of West Virginia. Then he ran for his old Senate seat in 1942. His appointee ran for the unexpired term. Both lost.
from the succession (replace him with the Majority Leader), or else make the Majority Leader also the Pro Tem, because as it stands, for all but six of the last thirty years the third-in-line for the presidency has been over the age of eighty (those six years in question were, ironically, Robert Byrd’s first term as Pro Tem, from 1989 to 1994), and almost 100 when Thurmond held it for the second time.
It seems that the rest of the world could care less, but it is extremely important!
as the appointment. I think expecting a pro-choice liberal who supports the environment may be asking far too much here. And forget someone who supports gay rights.
Manchin’s wife is in the mix though: http://www.politico.com/news/s…
who’ve been waiting for byrd’s seat to open up. can’t macnhinc find one?
and no he should not appoint himself! as a minnesotan i feel duty-bound to repeat that wendy anderson appointing himself senator when mondale became VP destroyed the MN democratic party for almost a generation.