1y ago

Kentucky’s Democratic governor declines to commit to appointing a Republican if Mitch McConnell steps down

www.nbcnews.com Kentucky governor won't commit to GOP appointment if McConnell steps down

A recent state law directs the governor to select a Senate appointee from a list of three names submitted by the state executive committee of the outgoing senator’s party.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear this week declined to say whether he would follow a state law that says Republicans would get to choose a replacement for Sen. Mitch McConnell if the Senate GOP leader leaves Congress before the end of his term.

The Democratic governor was asked during a news conference Thursday about making an appointment in the event of a Senate vacancy but said he would not speculate on the matter.

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39 comments

It should be a new election tbh. Even if that ends up being another Republican, it's the best way to do it. Elections in the US are for people, not parties — at least on paper.
- The people of Kentucky also elected a Democratic governor, and at the time they did so (2019), the law that requires Senate replacements to be from the same party did not exist yet. So they voted for him fully expecting that if McConnell keeled over he might be replaced by a Democrat.
- It should be, yes. And it would be in any other state. Mitch changed the law in his state so if he dies in office a new rep from the same party has to take his place.
  
  An article I read earlier, it sounds like the Governor has a reasonable chance of winning a court fight to invalidate that law for being unconstitutional.
  
  I hope it gets invalidated. Its obviously a bad faith law.
  
  It's me. Hi. I'm the Republican, it's me.
  *
- The issue is otherwise the voters are underrepresented in the meantime. Generally, how this is decided(and senators are elected in general) should be up to state law. And the state law as of now says it should be from the same party.
  
  Mitch McConnell's constituency aren't Kentucky voters, they're the oligarchy. He's never voted to protect or benefit anyone other than donors. Kentucky is one of the poorest states, so it's got the cheapestly bought federal positions.
  
  Mitch doesn't campaign much
  
  That's actually not strictly true. I read an expose a while back on exactly how McConnell campaigns. The reason why he has such a long-standing position in the Senate is because he campaigns to appeal to rural folk. Not that he puts out ads for rural folk or anything like traditional campaigning, but that he specifically has a division that keeps tabs on major events in small towns and always sends gifts and his regards and calls people out by name.
  Things like graduations, funerals, groundbreaking on new buildings, festivals, weddings, etc. Things that tend to make big news in small towns, he makes it a point to put his name on and endorse. It works well enough that it earns him the vote without having to campaign in a traditional way.
  I think the man is ruining our country, but he has his methodology for actually getting elected on lock.
  
  Maybe so, but he doesn't spend as much on flashy advertising campaigns compared to his opponents. At least in the 2020 election he didn't.

39 comments