Does anyone know of a site that lists which states require a Governor to appoint someone from the same party? I know a few hav that statute.

That might be a good netroots project for the future to try to get state laws introduced and passed.

To be really complete, you'd have to see what the laws of these states actually say about the Governor's power to appoint replacements.  Sadly, my days as a junior associate doing 50-state surveys of law are behind me.

I also wonder how many historical examples there are of Governors "doing the right thing" by appointing, say, someone's spouse, or someone else who wasn't a member of the Governor's party.

The two Tennessee senators are Frist (soon to be Corker) and Alexander....the governor is Bredesen (a Democrat). Bredesen serves until 2010.

...South Dakota governor would appoint the replacement, when South Dakota law seems to say the opposite?

http://legis.state.sd.us/statutes/Displa yStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=1 2-11-1

12-11-1.   Special election to fill congressional vacancy--Time of election of representative. If a vacancy occurs in the office of a senator or representative in the United States Congress it shall be the duty of the Governor within ten days of the occurrence, to issue a proclamation setting the date of and calling for a special election for the purpose of filling such vacancy. If either a primary or general election is to be held within six months, an election to fill a vacancy in the office of representative in the United States Congress shall be held in conjunction with that election, otherwise the election shall be held not less than eighty nor more than ninety days after the vacancy occurs.

Maybe Maine constituents e-mail their senators to switch?

Or Spector--can we court him to switch?

Daschle is a shoe-in in a special election.

AP, from the link: If Johnson is unable to serve, South Dakota Gov. Michael Rounds, a Republican, would appoint someone to fill his vacated seat.

WRONG.

If Johnson is unable to serve, and neither he nor the Senate does anything further about it, Johnson is still Senator.  There would be no vacancy, and Gov. Rounds would be unable to appoint anybody to anything.

If Johnson were to die or resign, there would be a vacancy.  Or if the remaining 99 Senators (with a 50-49 Dem edge, assuming no Liebertrayal) were to use their powers under Article I, Section 5 to determine that Johnson was no longer qualified to be a U.S. Senator, there would be a vacancy.

Under those circumstances, Gov. Rounds would be able to choose Johnson's replacement.

In recent history, as MSNBC and the NY Times point out, Senators have been incapacitated for months or years without any vacancy being declared:

The Senate historian's office cites several examples of a senator being incapacitated for years and remaining in office.

Most recently, Sen. Karl Mundt (coincidentally, also from South Dakota) suffered a stroke in 1969 and was incapacitated, but he refused to step down. He remained in office until January 1973, when his term expired. Mundt was pressured repeatedly to step down during his illness, but he demanded that the governor promise to appoint his wife. The governor refused, and Mundt remained in office.

Another example was Sen. Carter Glass, D-Va. Glass had a heart condition that prevented him from working for most of his last term after his re-election in 1942. Yet Glass refused to resign, and finally died of congestive heart failure in May 1946, in his apartment at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

According to information from the Senate historian cited on CQ.com, at least nine senators have taken extended absences from the Senate for health reasons since 1942. Robert F. Wagner, Democrat of New York, was unable to attend any sessions of the 80th or 81st Congress from 1947 to 1949 because of a heart ailment. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, missed about seven months in 1988 after surgery for a brain aneurysm. And David Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, suffered a heart attack in April 1991 and returned to the Senate in September that year.

This would give the Dem majority in the Senate (and 50-49 is still a voting majority, sidelining Cheney) room to deal.  They could strike a deal with Gov. Rounds where the Dems agreed to declare a vacancy if he agreed to appoint Rep. Herseth to fill Johnson's seat for the rest of his term.

This would be a good deal for both the national Dems and the SD GOP: it would at least give the SD GOP the consolation prizes of (a) having a shot at retaking Herseth's seat as an open seat in a special election, and (b) having a shot at the Senate seat in 2008, with Herseth still being a very new incumbent.  That would matter less to the national Dem party, since we expect to gain Senate seats in the more favorable environment of 2008.

It would be a lousy deal for the national GOP, and it would be a somewhat risky course for the SD Dems, too.  But they wouldn't be players in a negotiation of this sort - just the Senate Dems and the SD Gov.

Reposted to clear up the formatting.  Sorry about the double post. - RT

I'd forgotten about Biden's brain surgery. IIRC, he had a much worse incident than Johnson.

It is important that people know that 12-11-1 does not seem to apply to Senator Johnson (or any other Senator). Walt Starr in the comments of the Daily Kos thread brings up the applicable South Dakota law.

12-11-4.   Temporary appointment by Governor to fill vacancy in United States Senate. Pursuant to the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, the Governor may fill by temporary appointment, until a special election is held pursuant to this chapter, vacancies in the office of senator in the Senate of the United States.

12-11-5.   Special election to fill senate vacancy. The special election to fill the vacancy of a senator shall be held at the same time as the next general election. The general election laws shall apply unless inconsistent with this chapter.

12-2-2.   Date of general election--Officers elected. On the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each even-numbered year an election shall be held in the several election precincts in the state, which shall be known as the general election and the several state, district, and county officers, members of the Legislature, senators and representatives in Congress, and judges of the Supreme and Circuit Courts shall be elected at the general election next preceding the expiration of the term of each of such officers, respectively, except such officers as are required by law to be elected at a special election; and in a year when a President and vice-president of the United States are to be chosen, a number of electors of President and vice-president of the United States, equal to the number of senators and representatives in Congress to which the state may be entitled or such other number as the Congress of the United States may require, shall be selected at such election.

12-11-1, which originally applied to the Senate as well as the House, was written in 1890. When the 17th Amendment passed in 1913, 12-11-4 and 12-11-5 were added to bring South Dakota into compliance. 12-11-1 now applies only to the Representitives in the House.

But more importantly than my reading of the South Dakota law or Walt Starr's reading of the South Dakota law, is the fact that this is how the South Dakota law has been interpreted in the past (h/t bschak @ DailyKos) and that South Dakota's Secretary of State reads the law the same way (h/t a gnostic @ DailyKos).

Here are the same lists as above, but with senators from AK, AZ, HI, MA, OK, UT, WI, and WY removed, since those states have restrictions on gubernatorial appointments. I've also recorded their ages as of 1/3/07.

Relevant Democratic or Third-Party Senators from States with Republican Governors (17, with 1 over 70)
Feinstein (CA-73), Boxer (CA-66), Dodd (CT-62), Lieberman (CT-64), Nelson (FL-64), Bayh (IN-51), Klobuchar (MN-46), McCaskill (MO-53), Nelson (NE-65), Reid (NV-67), Dorgan (ND-64), Conrad (ND-58), Reed (RI-57), Whitehouse (RI-51), Johnson (SD-60), Leahy (VT-66), Sanders (VT-65)

Relevant Republican Senators from States with Democratic Governors (24, with 7 over 70)
Allard (CO-66), Grassley (IA-73), Brownback (KS-50), Roberts (KS-70), Vitter (LA-55), Snowe (ME-59), Collins (ME-54), Gregg (NH-59), Sununu (NH-52), Domenici (NM-74), Dole (NC-70), Burr (NC-51), Voinovich (OH-70), Smith (OR-54), Specter (PA-76), Alexander (TN-66), Corker (TN-54), Warner (VA-79)