Just when you thought the election was over, you started to wonder who will
replace Secretary of State and Congressman-elect James Langevin when he goes
to Washington.
Another casualty of the four-year term, Congressman Robert Weygand, defeated
last week in his bid for the U.S. Senate, was among our first. Weygand, who
was lieutenant governor ran for U.S. House of Representatives and won. He was
replaced as lieutenant governor by Bernard Jackvony, who then lost in his bid
for reelection to Charles Fogarty, the current lieutenant governor. Former Treasurer
Nancy Mayer might have been another casualty of the four-year term, but she
lost in her bid for the U.S. Senate.
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Unlike the Jackvony appointment and the appointment of Senator Lincoln Chafee
to the U.S. Senate upon the death of his father, this appointment wrests with
the General Assembly. And it is likely that Langevin, a Democrat, will be replaced
by a Democrat. Jackvony was a Republican, replacing Democrat Weygand.
It used to be that elections decided who would fill offices, but here in Rhode
Island we now have a process – or at least it seems – where some seats, vacated
by ambitious officeholders, can be filled by politicians’ whims rather than
the electorate’s wishes.
Voters overwhelmingly approved an advisory referendum suggesting a Constitutional
Convention to review the manner in which individuals are appointed to boards
and commissions, the intent to prohibit the legislature from appointing members
to the boards and commissions they create.
If a Constitutional Convention is convened it should also explore whether we
should require those who seek another office in mid-term to resign from their
current position when they declare their candidacy.
When the four-year term was created it was meant to give officeholders more
time to govern, and less pressure from the election process. Those who run for
statewide offices, we believe, make a commitment to the voters to complete their
terms. What value is there to the four-year term if officeholders see it not
as a way to eliminate the pressure of two-year elections, but to provide a fault-free
opportunity to pursue higher office?
