An Election for Lt. Governor can be held this year.
My question as to who is running for AG is answered. My next question is: does our Delaware State Constitution provide anyone power to appoint a new Lt. Governor, should Lt. Governor Matt Denn be elected Attorney General later this year and thus resign his current office. Section 9 of Article II tells us the Governor does not have that power…
Section 9. He or she shall have power, unless herein otherwise provided, to appoint, by and with the consent of a majority of all the members elected to the Senate, such officers as he or she is or may be authorized by this Constitution or by law to appoint. He or she shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, in offices to which he or she may appoint, except in the offices of Chancellor, Chief Justice and Judges, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.
He or she shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen in elective offices, except in the offices of Lieutenant-Governor and members of the General Assembly, by granting Commissions which shall expire when their successors shall be duly qualified.
In case of vacancy in an elective office, except as aforesaid, a person shall be chosen to said office for the full term at the next general election, unless the vacancy shall happen within two months next before such election, in which case the election for said office shall be held at the second succeeding general election.
Unless herein otherwise provided, confirmation by the Senate of officers appointed by the Governor shall be required only where the salary, fees and emoluments of office shall exceed the sum of fifteen hundred dollars annually.
The paragraph after the one I highlighted there is equally important. If Matt Denn resigns the office of Lt. Governor at any time prior to September 4 of this year, then it would seem that the election for the remainder of the term of Lt. Governor would take place during the November general election. Given the lateness of that September 4 date, I imagine this election for Lt. Governor is treated like a special election wherein the parties nominate a candidate for the office rather than engage in a primary.
If Matt Denn is feeling confident that victory is within his grasp in the AG race come late summer, does he resign the office of LG to allow a special election to take place? I don’t know.
And if he did resign in time, who would the party nominated candidates be?
Why would he do that? Give up a job and platform to run from in 2016 for the sake of guaranteeing Patty Blevins a tie-breaking vote? Makes no sense.
You forget that Denn is not independently wealthy like Markell, does not have a family business like Minner and doesn’t have the long public pension promised like Carper. He is now working in a side gig as an attorney to supplement his LG salary. He has two young kids who will need to go to college in a few years. So from a purely personally selfish POV, why would he quit the LG’s job in September and have five months of reduced paychecks and no fallback job?
There is no appointments or special elections for Lt. Governor. When Carper left early and RAM assumed the Governorship, we didn’t have a Lt. Gov for 21 days. The Lt. Governor does preside over the Senate and has the tie breaking vote. He also sits on the Board of Pardons and has a vote on the Commutations Board (Death Penalty).
I believe that Mr. Crane was right in the other thread: there is no process to replace a Lt. Gov. who resigns (or dies) during his term. The “special election”paragraph in section 9 of Art. II that you cite encompasses only those elected offices where – under the preceding paragraph – the Gov. is empowered to appoint a “temporary” replacement (pending the special election). Just as the Gov. cannot appoint a “temporary” Lt. Gov., the special election paragraph does not apply to a vacancy in the Lt. Gov.’s office. It remains vacant for the remainder of the lt. Gov. term. That result flows from the “except as aforesaid” qualifier in the special election paragraph.
If Denn resigns and then Markell quits a week later, then the Governorship would go to the Secretary of State for the remainder of the Markell term. That is section 20(a) of Article II.
You are wrong, Anonymous, and you need to retake reading comprehension. It is obvious in reading my post and the Constitution that there can be no appointment of a new Lt. Governor. But there can be a special election for one. BUT, in order for there to be a special election for the LG office this year, Denn would have to resign two months before the November general election, as the above section of the Constitution clearly provides. Read it again and you will see. The reason there was no special election in 2000 was because Carper resigned AFTER the November 2000 general election, an election that already featured an election for Governor for the 2001-2005 term. Obviously, we are not going to have another special election for a 21 day term of office.
Gary,
I do not read any exclusion of the Lt. Governor office from having a special election. Only an exclusion from having the Governor appoint a replacement.
I’m with SW here. Why in the world would Matt Denn resign his post as Lt. Gov? That would make no sense politically or financially.
SW is right about making no sense financially for him personally. And thus he probably won’t do it.