The Great and Powerful Oz
Utah's Republican senators consider the 17th Amendment, allowing the public to vote in U.S. Senate races, a mistake. State leaders lost power in 1913 and now 93 years later, they want it back.
Mostly because they believe they would wield that power more wisely.
Senate President John Valentine said lawmakers don't know better than the voters, but "We know more than the voters do."
A Senate committee will debate legislation that amounts to a back-handed slap at the 17th Amendment Wednesday morning. The bill, sponsored by Draper Republican Sen. Howard Stephenson, would give political parties the option of avoiding a primary by allowing legislators of the same party to pick the candidate.
-- Matt Canham
Mostly because they believe they would wield that power more wisely.
Senate President John Valentine said lawmakers don't know better than the voters, but "We know more than the voters do."
A Senate committee will debate legislation that amounts to a back-handed slap at the 17th Amendment Wednesday morning. The bill, sponsored by Draper Republican Sen. Howard Stephenson, would give political parties the option of avoiding a primary by allowing legislators of the same party to pick the candidate.
-- Matt Canham
12 Comments:
So who is the legislature upset with, Hatch or Bennet? Are they really that fearful of a Senator Ashdown?
Well what do you know? I guess in Utah uou get what you don't vote for.
Considering this was the original intent of those who wrote the Constitution, just how is this "undemocratic"?
Senators were never intended to be the representatives of the people -- they were supposed to the representatives of the States.
The bill doesn't really change anything -- it merely allows the parties to do away with primary elections for Senate candidates. Senators will still be elected by popular vote, as required by the 17th Amendment.
What's wrong with primaries for Senators, jorgensen?
Nothing. But there's no legal requirement for it, either; primaries are party elections, not State elections, and can be conducted any way the party wishes to conduct them.
Yes, that is quite true about primaries, j, and it is what states do currently. Why, therefore, is legislature so obsessed with a Senatorial primary? Can you see why people smell a rat when elected officials wish to pick other elected officials? It is called cronyism and is not something that any party is immune from.
As to the broader issue of the "intent of the founding fathers" (which you don't address, j, I'm just addressing the issue I've read elsewhere.) Can those who argue for original intent have it both ways? Parties did not exist when the constitution was written (at least in our sense of the term) and it took until Washington's second term for them to really develop. If one is going to fiddle with the 17th amendment, why not fiddle with the 12th amendment that fixed the problematic presidential election system? One can see how ludicrous the "original intent" argument is when the "fathers" themselves moved to immediately correct a very problematic presidential election system. The election of Senators by the legislature lead to the Boss system and extreme corruption. It was just as broken, if not more so, than the erstwhile presidential election system in place for a short while for the election of the first 3 presidents.
This blog is living proof that we need term limits in the Utah Legislature. John Valentine, or any other Utah County-representative selecting my U.S. Senator? Not in this lifetime! I think I know plenty about what is happening in Washington and I'n not going to let some local party hack select my reps back there. What a dufus.
Well put, cvrepublican.
Hey - easy on the elected officials.
NO ONE over here said legislators are smarter than the rest of the state.
He just said the legislature tends to be closer to more information and the minutia of policymaking.
It's true.
(Not that others couldn't or shouldn't be more engaged).
You can can read Senator Knudson's observation on the Senate Site.
"He just said the legislature tends to be closer to more information and the minutia of policymaking."
No he did not Senator Knud. Valintine said "we know more" Simple as that. Don't put words in his mouth Kundson. "I was is the room ". Big woop. You sound like Bush and Rove twisting words and blaming someone else for what your party did or said. Disgusting!
Well hot Dam! Mr. Senator you sure put me in my place. you sure are smarter than us regular non educated pepole.Go ahed now and choose whats best for me cause I sure aint smat enuf to make up my own mind.
the senate site makes a good point about going easy on elected officials. It is a tough job that they threw themselves up for. It is easy for folks to slap at them from the sidelines or even from the 139th row.
Now, granted, the assumption is that in Utah you could elect a turnip to the legislature as long as said turnip ran as a Republican, but that is aside from the point. What concerns me most, is that the Republican party which (despite back-talk from other parties) has long championed individual liberty and true democratic principals of one-person-one-vote seems to be sucumbing to the unfortunate elitist principals of "we know better than you" parties. Is there really a need for the fear of the mob especially here in Utah? Can we take a step back from this misguided need to protect "States Rights" (which was pure and simply a racists dogmatic position to protect anti-Republican, anti-black, anti-freedom positions in the old South) and understand that we are citizens of the United States of America and not simply of Utah?
Ok that was a rant and a half, but come now, how is our republic made better by a system that removes us from direct election of senators (even if it is just their selection in the primaries?)
Post a Comment
<< Home