Larry Elder has said if governor he would replace Senator Feinstein and others–does he have authority to remove an elected US Congressperson. I thought only the US Senate was only ones with that authority for cause?
No, he doesn’t. It’s the usual lying to rile the base babble.
You could interpret that to mean: if I’m governor, and Feinstein dies/resigns, I get to name her replacement.
Or he’s just making shit up.
Yeah, without context I don’t know if he was referring to a scenario in which Feinstein dies in office and he names her replacement (which isn’t too wild a scenario given her age), but given Elder’s background as a talk radio personality and general imbecile, he may actually believe the Governor can just fire Senators.
I am going to be charitable and say that whatever he spoke, the intention was to remind voters that, “if elected, and a senator dies, I would have the power to name a replacement.”
I’ve read several news stories about Elder’s statement, and the surrounding context isn’t entirely clear. However, I don’t think he’s saying he would “fire” Senator Feinstein. It seems to me like he’s saying that if he becomes Governor, and if Senator Feinstein dies in office or retires, he’d appoint a Republican to replace her.
Senator Feinstein is 88 years old. There’s some reporting (mostly but not entirely in right-wing sources) that some other senators have expressed concern about her health and that some fellow Democrats have urged her to retire.
What Larry Elder said was:
God forbid Gov. Elder should replace Dianne Feinstein who nobody’s seen in weeks. I’m told she has a worse mental condition than even Joe Biden. They’re afraid I would replace her with a Republican — which I most certainly would do and that would be an earthquake in Washington D.C.
I think he’s making a claim that her condition is even worse than anyone is letting on, and it’s inevitable that she’ll have to resign or be removed due to mental incompetence soon, if she doesn’t die first. So, voters should recall Gavin Newsome and elect Larry Elder to replace him so there’ll be a Republican in place when that happens, and Republicans can take back control of the Senate.
That’s clearly and obviously what he meant. No one, including Elder, thinks a governor can just replace a senator on a whim.
IANAL but as I understand it, California law does allow the governor to nominate the replacement senator when an existing senator dies.
I would wager a lot of Americans have literally no idea as to whether a Governor can fire a Senator or not.
The Governor doesn’t nominate a replacement Senator – “nominate” implies that he or she would still need to be confirmed by a legislative body. Under California law, the Governor has the sole authority to appoint a replacement Senator who will serve until the next statewide general election.
BUT, the law can always be changed. Democrats have veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the California Legislature. God forbid Elder gets elected, I’d hope their first order of business would be to change the process for filling a vacancy. They can’t afford to wait until Feinstein becomes visibly sick, if she dies Elder could immediately fill the seat. Any attempt to undo his appointment at that point would be an unconstitutional ex post facto law.
well, Trump thought he could unilaterally repeal the 14th amendment
Or appoint a new one when an existing one is elected to higher office…like Vice President.
He knows he can’t fire her…but he also knows his fans will believe he can and, unless pushed, will let them continue believing it.
Is it true that nobody has seen her in weeks?
Maybe Elder’s opponents should also play up the fact that if Elder gets elected he’ll be the one to appoint her replacement (should she require one) to drive the Democrats to the polls.
On a related note: I would not be upset were Feinstein to retire, generally speaking.
Looks like she co-signed a notice with Conneticut Senator Blumenthal to the AG about the Larry Nassar case that was sent out on the 2nd. So even if she isn’t publicly visible (and I don’t know if she is or not), it does look like she’s still working. At 88 in a pandemic I wouldn’t exactly expect her to be flitting about to Walmart openings and the such anyway.
But Larry Elder’s other comments were probably just responses to numerous inquiries because liberal pundits have been wringing their hands for days about the Feinstein situation. It’s one of those plausible doomsday scenarios people get worked up about, like certain circles worrying that Stephen Breyer is holding on too long.
Hasn’t the Senate been on August recess for … weeks? So nobody’s camped outside her home in SF to grab a paparazzi shot?
Kentucky did exactly that to prevent the current Democratic governor from appointing a Democrat to replace McConnell or Rand Paul should the occasion arise:
I will also note that Arizona law requires that the governor picks someone from the same party as the departing senator. Unlike the Kentucky law, it doesn’t give the state party any say into who gets picked.
Massachusetts did the same thing back in 2004. They replaced the governor’s power to appoint a replacement with a special election, so Mitt Romney couldn’t appoint John Kerry’s replacement had he been elected President. It backfired spectacularly in 2009 when Ted Kennedy died and was replaced by Republican Scott Brown in the special election.
To be fair, that was largely due to Martha Coakley running the World’s Worst Campaign.
I think she beat her own record in the 2014 gubernatorial race.
To be fair, it wasn’t just Coakley’s fault - infighting in the Democratic party, including Menino’s decision not to put any support behind Coakley after she beat his pick, Mike Capuano, really hurt her as well.