Either way, they'd have to fill the seat.


Personally, I'd go with a Latino from the West.

We're assuming, of course, that we retake the Senate.

If I remember right, we had a republican governor and they had to change the law to require a special election and block the governor from appointing someone in the meantime. I think that was when Kerry was running for President. Then, just a few years later, Ted Kennedy died and they changed the law again to allow a Dem governor to appoint someone immediately. Now that we have a republican governor again, they just need to change the law again (for the 3rd time in 12 years) to block a republican appointment. I think it would all just be easier if they wrote into law that Dem governors can appoint someone to fill a vacancy and republican governors must wait for a special election to be held, because that's the de-facto policy anyway.

The Vice President has the power to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate (to act as the 101st Senator in that case), and to be both a voting Senator and the tie-breaker would be an obvious conflict of interest. And the Constitution prohibits it anyhow: "No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office."

We need her where she is, and she doesn't want the job.

With the fact that as VP she is also president of the senate and casts any tie breaking votes, not sure how that would impact the idea..

Clause 2: Independence from the executive[edit]
Main article: Ineligibility Clause
See also: Saxbe fix
No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Senators and Representatives may not simultaneously serve in Congress and hold a position in the executive branch. This restriction is meant to protect legislative independence by preventing the president from using patronage to buy votes in Congress. It is a major difference from the political system in the British Parliament, where cabinet ministers are required to be members of parliament.

Furthermore, Senators and Representatives cannot resign to take newly created or higher-paying political positions; rather, they must wait until the conclusion of the term for which they were elected. If Congress increases the salary of a particular officer, it may later reduce that salary to permit an individual to resign from Congress and take that position (known as the Saxbe fix). The effects of the clause were discussed in 1937, when Senator Hugo Black was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court with some time left in his Senate term. Just prior to the appointment, Congress had increased the pension available to Justices retiring at the age of seventy. It was therefore suggested by some that the office's emolument had been increased during Black's Senatorial term, and that therefore Black could not take office as a Justice. The response, however, was that Black was fifty-one years old, and would not receive the increased pension until at least 19 years later, long after his Senate term had expired.