BILL TO SECRETLY SELECT LEGISLATIVE SUCCESSORS PUT ON HOLD, WHERE IT SHOULD BE
A legislative column by state Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin)

The state Senate is considering legislation to devise a system to replace state lawmakers killed or incapacitated due to a terrorist attack or pandemic. Because I have concerns about the proposed legislation, Senate Bill 227 (SB 227), I wrote in a previous column, “During emergencies, cooler heads need to prevail. The same holds true during non-emergencies.”

I am happy to report that cooler heads, for the moment, have succeeded as SB 227 has temporarily been referred by the Senate back to committee. Hopefully, the bill will be permanently shelved.

Here is why I find SB 227 problematic. If disaster should strike the state Capitol and require replacements, I strongly believe voters should decide the successors.

SB 227 requires that a legislator, as soon as  feasible after the Legislature reconvenes every two years, must file with the chief clerk for the legislator’s house a list of not less than three nor more than seven emergency interim successors. The list would be secret and not subject to inspection or copying under the open records law.

If more than nine vacancies in the state Senate or more than 25 vacancies in the state Assembly are created because of some disaster, interim successors chosen by legislators on their secret lists would be appointed by the presiding officer or his or her designee in the appropriate house of the Legislature to fill the vacancies. The emergency successor would exercise the powers and duties of the office until an election is held or the emergency is over. All votes taken by interim successors would be valid.

Such a system removes electoral power from voters and would place expansive taxing and spending powers in the hands of unelected, unaccountable individuals chosen secretly.

During the September 22, 2009 state Senate floor session, I was prepared to offer an amendment to SB 227 to address my chief concern that the right to vote was being stripped from the electorate. My amendment outlined specific guidelines for emergency elections to he held quickly in the event of a disaster so that seats could be filled as soon as possible and citizens would continue to have elected representation.

Under my amendment, the state would use the procedures already in place for special elections and allow the current process to move forward during a terrorist attack or pandemic.   A special election takes place 62 to 77 days after the order is given by the governor. Primaries, if necessary, are held four weeks prior to the special election.   An emergency election would collapse the process down to a much shorter time line. 

My amendment likely had enough votes to be approved by the state Senate and that, along with a desire to reconsider the legislation, persuaded Senate Democrats to send SB 227 back to the senate’s scheduling committee, putting the measure on hold temporarily.

I question whether the state even needs to establish a system for interim successors as proposed by SB 227. The governor has emergency powers and Wisconsin has a Homeland Security Council with a specified Homeland Security strategy in place. Following a disaster, it seems a wiser approach would be to execute traditional special elections as quickly as possible instead of relying on an undemocratic process of picking names out of sealed envelopes.

Legislation to create a system of selecting an unelected successor from a handpicked list should simply be forgotten.  Recall the price tag on the Illinois replacement to former Senator Obama.  Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, now facing federal fraud and racketeering charges, made the controversial appointment of Roland Burris as the successor to then president-elect Barack Obama. Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois House and removed from office by the Illinois senate.

The state of Wisconsin should allow citizens to maintain their voting rights and choose their representatives.

If you have comments on this or any other issue, please contact me at Sen.Lazich@legis.wisconsin.gov, www.SenatorLazich.com, Senator Mary Lazich, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882 Madison, WI 53707 or 1-800-334-1442.