Kentucky Gov Denies The Will Of Constituents

Kentucky legislators are thinking ahead. They see that Senator McConnell is getting on in his years and don't want their Dem Governor to appoint one of his buddies to the Senate seat if McConnell doesn't make it full term. So the legislators passed a bill that would make it so the replacement would at least be from the same party, which makes sense since the people voted in that Senator from that party. But the Governor doesn't agree and vetoed it, claiming it took away his power.

"United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) commented on his position in the Senate after a bill was recently passed in the Kentucky state legislature regarding appointments to vacant Senate seats.

The bill, SB 228, requires the Kentucky governor to fill an empty seat in the Senate with a person from the same political party from the departing senator. It also makes it so that the governor must select a successor from a list of three people given to the governor by the executive committee of the same party of the departing lawmaker."

Democratic Governor Andy Beshear claims “Senate Bill 228 violates that very purpose of the amendment by returning the power, specifically in law, to a political party to come up with names for a vacancy.”

McConnell also commented on bill SB 228.

“I don’t think we’re going to have a vacancy. I’m not going anywhere. I just got elected to a six-year term. And I’m still the leader of my party in the Senate, so this is a hypothetical,” McConnell said. “But I had watched this over the years in the Senate as various vacancies were filled and I thought this was the best way to go.”

The legislation makes sense. If Kentucky voters vote in a GOP Senator they should continue to have one until they vote otherwise. It should be the same if it was a Dem in Office, as it is the will of the people.