January 21, 2005|The Morning Call
President Bush chose Dick Cheney as his Republican running mate, just as John Kerry chose John Edwards to run on the Democratic ticket. It makes sense for chief executive candidates to voluntarily and deliberately run as a team. The same could be said for governors and lieutenant governors. But that's not the case in Pennsylvania. Candidates run separately for governor and lieutenant governor in the party primary, leaving voters to pair two people as a "ticket" in the general election.
An unexpected situation after Sept. 11, 2001 prompted new thinking about the gubernatorial and lieutenant governor positions. Mr. Bush had tapped then-Gov. Tom Ridge as homeland security adviser, setting off a chain of succession among Republicans. Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker became governor and Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer tried to straddle the executive and legislative branches of government. He kept his Senate seat and served as lieutenant governor.
So, there was talk following the Ridge-Schweiker-Jubelirer succession about a constitutional amendment related to succession. In 2003, to his credit, Sen. Jubelirer proposed an amendment that would give the governor the power to fill the office of lieutenant governor if it becomes vacant. If the choice is a member of the General Assembly, that person would have to resign that position, and then the Senate would confirm the nominee.
Also that year, state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, introduced a bill to amend the state's election code. In fact, that first version of the Corman bill related to the lieutenant governor -- it never passed -- included Sen. Jubelirer among its co-sponsors, in addition to former Sen. Charlie Dent of the Lehigh Valley and Sen. Stewart Greenleaf of Bucks and Montgomery counties.
Now, Sen. Corman is in the process of getting co-sponsors so he can reintroduce the legislation to change the way lieutenant governor candidates are chosen and elected. According to the bill, each candidate for governor, having won the nomination of the political party, would select a candidate for lieutenant governor at least 90 days before the general gubernatorial election. The lieutenant governor candidate, however, would be subject to the approval of the gubernatorial candidate's political party -- pretty much how presidential candidates choose running mates.
The constitutional amendment to change the succession related to the lieutenant governor still is worth discussion. But for now, the Senate should move ahead with Sen. Corman's bill to permit gubernatorial candidates to choose their own running mates. Though the proposed change surfaced before Gov. Ed Rendell and Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll came into office, that political pairing and Mrs. Knoll's questionable performance underscore the need to legislate a change in the election code.
