What happens to Obama's and Biden's Senate Seats?

One thing I didn't know, but starting checking out on the web, is a governmental question about what happens to a Senate seat if the Senator becomes President or Vice-President?

It turns out that if a U.S. Senator wins the Presidency or Vice-Presidency, the governor of their home state appoints someone to fill their seat. The appointee will fill out that term. So, for example, Obama's seat is up in two years. So, his replacement will have the Senate seat for two years. Biden, by the way, was up for reelection and won his Senate race, so his replacement will last the full term of six years.

Evidently, the governor can choose someone from any party and does not have to replace the Senate seat with someone of the same party.

Considering that both Illinois and Delaware currently have Democratic governors, this probably will be less of an issue, but the potential is there. If there is a party-change in the governorship, the President or Vice-President-elect can resign their seat and have a replacement appointed before the governor's term is up. Or they can wait (all the way up until being sworn into office), if they are waiting for a new governor.

Comments

Stephen C. Carlson said…
Almost right, but there is a little wrinkle. It depends on the state, but, after the governor appoints the senator, a special election will also be scheduled, usually by the next federal election if not sooner, to fill out the remainder of the term.

According to the Washington Post, for Delaware, the governor will appoint a senator, but there will be a special election in 2010 (not 2014) to fill out the remainder of the Biden term. Usually, but not always, the appointee will also run in the special election.
November 5, 2008 at 2:35 AM
Unknown said…
There's also been speculation about Alaska. If Ted Stevens ends up winning but then going to jail (you just gotta admire how Alaskans love even those corrupt politicians whose corruption has been proven by official government oversight committees or juries), he will likely be expelled from the Senate by the fellow Senators. Apparently the governor (Palin, who very emphatically doesn't have another job waiting for her) has to call a special election within 60-90 days of whenever the seat is vacated, so while Palin might be able to make herself Senator temporarily, she couldn't appoint herself to permanently fill the seat, even for two years.
November 5, 2008 at 7:56 AM
Unknown said…
Wyoming also had a senator die in office semi-recently. Their state law called for that senator's party in the state legislature to submit three names to the governor, and then the governor chooses one of those three names. (In this case, it preserved a Republican seat in the Senate at a time when Wyoming had a Democratic governor). This seems by far the fairest way I've heard of for keeping the original voting intent of the people intact.
November 5, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Unknown said…
For Delaware, I've heard Joe Biden's son, Beau (now Del. Atty General) may have an inside track. For Illinois, I've heard Jesse Jackson, Jr. (now a Congressman), Amy Madigan (current Atty. General), and possibly Blagojevich might submit his own name (he's down to about 13% approval here, so he may want to jump ship).
November 5, 2008 at 8:02 AM
Jaeda Calaway said…
Thanks for the corrections!

And, Stephen, I have your book on Secret Mark. Being the former Morton Smith Fellow at Columbia, I relished every moment of it! ;)
November 5, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quirky Christology: Theophilus of Antioch and the Logos' Preincarnate Peformance

For my current project, which focuses on how early Christians understood Moses' visions, I have been delving much into Second and Third Century Christian sources.  During the past week, I have been playing a lot with Theophilus of Antioch with his treatise/letter/apology to Autolycus.  Theophilus, let's say, has a fairly unique Christology in many ways.  Much of this was explicitly rejected by his rough contemporary Irenaeus and has been discussed at length by modern scholars.  But there is one aspect of his Christology that has been largely ignored and is, well, quirky.   ὁ μὲν θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τῶν ὅλων ἀχώρητὸς ἐστιν καὶ ἐν τόπῳ οὐχ εὑρίσκεται· οὐ γὰρ ἐστιν τόπος καταπαύσεως αὐτοῦ. ὁ δὲ Λόγος αὐτοῦ, δι᾽οὗ τὰ πάντα πεποίκηκεν, δύναμισ ὤν καὶ σοφία αὐτοῦ, ἀναλαμβάνων τὀ πρόσωπον τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ κυρίου τῶν ὅλων, οὗτος παρεγίνετο εἰς τὸν παράδεισον ἐν προσώπῳ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁμίλει τῷ Ἀδάμ. Καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴ ἡ θεία γραφὴ διδάσκει ἡμᾶς τὸν Ἀδὰμ λέγοντα τῆς φωνῆς...
Read more

Book Note: Peter Schaefer's _Jesus in the Talmud_

I just finished reading Peter Schafer's new book, Jesus in the Talmud . Previous discussions on this theme have revolved around whether or not the rare appearances of Jesus in Rabbinic literature can contribute to our understanding of the "historical Jesus." Notable in this respect is the highly erudite and ultimately fruitless study by Johann Maier entitled, Jesus von Nazareth in der talmudischen Ueberlieferung . Schaefer seeks to move beyond such questions and discuss why Jesus is portrayed the way he is in the Talmud (basically, and to no one's surprise, in a very negative light). His thesis is that the Talmud's occasional discussions of Jesus--when Jesus usually is NOT the primary topic under discussion, but is merely used as an example for another point--provides a "devastating counternarrative" to the gospels. "Counternarrative," by the way, is Schaefer's favorite word in this book. To demonstrate this, he engages in close readi...
Read more

Polutropos: Much-Turned Speech in the Odyssey and Hebrews

Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν: πολλῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω, πολλὰ δ’ ὃ γ’ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν, ἀρνύμενος ἣν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων. (Odyssey 1.1-5) Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως πάλαι ὁ θεὸς λαλήσας τοῖς πατράσιν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις ἐπ’ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων ἐλάλησεν ἡμιν ἐν υἱῷ, ὃν ἔθηκεν κληρονόμον πάντων, δι’ οὖ καὶ ἐποίσεν τοὺς αἰῶνας: ὃς ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ, φέρων τε τὰ πάντα τῷ ῥήματα τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ, καθαρισμὸν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ποιησάμενος «ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ» τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν ὑψηλοῖς, τοσούτῳ κρείττων γενόμενος τῶν ἀγγέλων ὅσῳ διαφορώτερον παρ’ αὐτοὺς κεκληρονόμηκεν ὄνομα. (Hebrews 1:1-4) I thought I would write an essay—in Montaigne’ sense of a try, an experiment, an attempt that is never conclusive but always questioning—by bringing together two texts and just seeing what happens. It is really a midrashic moment, in fact, because I started ...
Read more