Voters to decide U.S. Senate replacements under proposed law

DENVER - Colorado voters would always decide who would become the state's next U.S. senator under a plan being discussed at the State Capitol. Colorado law currently gives the governor the power to appoint a replacement senator in the case of a retirement, death or any reason for leaving office.

The situation recently arose in Colorado when Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) resigned his seat to become the Secretary of the Interior in President Obama's Cabinet. Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) appointed former Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to fill the remaining two years of Salazar's term before appearing on the ballot in 2010. Senate Bill 152 would simply require that any U.S. Senate vacancy be filled through an election.

"Senators are not appointed by the states any more," Sen. Mike Kopp (R-Littleton) said. "You're leaving out millions of people who should have input into that decision. I think the idea here is to empower the greatest number of people that is feasible."

U.S. senators used to be selected by state legislatures until the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1913. That mandated that voters selected senators unless there was a vacancy in the middle of a term and then, the decisions were left to state legislatures and governors. Colorado lawmakers granted the governor the power to make that decision on his or her own timeframe.

"If this very important position, a position that deals with settling treaties, with war and peace, they make lifetime appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court and what we're saying essentially is one person, in this case Gov. Ritter here in Colorado, could make that appointment on his own," Kopp said. "I just think you're leaving out millions of people who should have input into that decision."

Colorado lawmakers are not the only ones discussing this topic. Following the cases in Illinois, Delaware and Colorado where sitting U.S. senators were elected president, vice president and selected interior secretary respectively, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) plans to introduce a measure in Congress requiring all senate vacancies be filled by a vote of the people in that state.