Question of the Month
March
2004
How
do Midwestern states fill legislative vacancies that arise midterm?
The 11
Midwestern states are divided almost evenly in their use of three
different approaches to filling midterm legislative vacancies. Four
states (Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin)
permit special elections to be called, although they generally allow
vacancies to remain unfilled if the legislature will not be in session
again before the next regularly scheduled general election is held. In
some of these states, the time frame during which a special election
must be called is narrowly prescribed; in others, the governor has
broader discretion to set the date.
In four other states (Illinois, Indiana,
North Dakota and Ohio), the party of the departing
legislator names a successor, although the means of doing so and the
effective duration of the appointment vary. Party leaders at the local
district level choose the new member in most of these states, but in
Ohio, the party caucus in the legislative chamber where the vacancy
occurred selects the successor. In Indiana, the new member is chosen
by a caucus of district precinct committee members and serves for the
remainder of the unexpired term, regardless of when the vacancy
occurred.
In the other three states where the
parties name successors, appointments made early in the first half of
a four-year term are considered interim appointments and are only
effective until the next general election. At that point, the
successor must stand for election for the remainder of the unexpired
term.
The third approach to filling
vacancies, which is used in Kansas, Nebraska and South
Dakota, is gubernatorial appointment. In each of these states, the
member named by the governor serves only until the next general
election.
In Kansas, local leaders of the
departing member’s political party submit a recommendation to the
governor for appointment, but in Nebraska and South Dakota, the
governor is free to choose the successor. This method can, and
recently has, resulted in changes in the partisan composition of the
chambers in which such vacancies occur.
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