I don’t remember all the details, but for the past years Republicans have stripped away lots of powers of their Democratic governor. And somewhere in there, they also had a rule change that doesn’t allow a special election if it’s so many months away from a regular election. So basically if they run out the clock, the governor can’t hold a special election to replace McConnell.
Multiple articles have stated in 2024 changes to state law requires a special election to fill a vacant Senate seat. Before that, a 2021 law allowed the political party holding the seat to submit three names for the governor to choose from, rather than leaving the selection solely to the governor. Political experts cited in the report say timing requirements mean the window to call a special election would be tight, with an estimated cutoff of Aug. 3 based on candidate filing and notice deadlines. It’s why if it’s announced Aug 4th it’d would have been weekend at Bernie’s essentially and why people are calling on Governor Bashear to just call a special election to force their hand.
It’s worth noting that the laws the other people are mentioning are just state laws and therefore do not supersede Kentucky’s state constitution, which gives Beshear the power to simply appoint a replacement. Including a Democrat, if he wants.
I’m out of the loop. Why August 4th?
I don’t remember all the details, but for the past years Republicans have stripped away lots of powers of their Democratic governor. And somewhere in there, they also had a rule change that doesn’t allow a special election if it’s so many months away from a regular election. So basically if they run out the clock, the governor can’t hold a special election to replace McConnell.
Edit: I dug up an article
Multiple articles have stated in 2024 changes to state law requires a special election to fill a vacant Senate seat. Before that, a 2021 law allowed the political party holding the seat to submit three names for the governor to choose from, rather than leaving the selection solely to the governor. Political experts cited in the report say timing requirements mean the window to call a special election would be tight, with an estimated cutoff of Aug. 3 based on candidate filing and notice deadlines. It’s why if it’s announced Aug 4th it’d would have been weekend at Bernie’s essentially and why people are calling on Governor Bashear to just call a special election to force their hand.
It’s worth noting that the laws the other people are mentioning are just state laws and therefore do not supersede Kentucky’s state constitution, which gives Beshear the power to simply appoint a replacement. Including a Democrat, if he wants.