Current:Home > StocksEffort to end odd-year elections for governor, other state offices wins Kentucky Senate approval-LoTradeCoin
Effort to end odd-year elections for governor, other state offices wins Kentucky Senate approval
View Date:2024-12-23 20:06:21
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A long-running effort to shift Kentucky’s elections for governor and other statewide offices to coincide with presidential elections won approval in the state Senate on Wednesday. Now comes a much bigger test for supporters: whether they can muster enough votes to win House passage.
The measure is aimed at amending Kentucky’s constitution to end the long Bluegrass State tradition of holding elections for governor and other state constitutional offices in odd-numbered years. The proposal would switch those contests to presidential election years, starting in 2032.
The proposal won Senate approval on a 26-9 vote after a long debate, sending it to the House. Similar proposals in previous years died in the House.
If this year’s measure ultimately passes both chambers, it would be placed on the November ballot for Kentucky voters to decide whether to end the odd-year elections for governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and agriculture commissioner.
Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel has pushed for the constitutional change for a decade. His proposals made it through the Senate in the past but always died in the House.
After the Senate vote Wednesday, McDaniel urged House leaders to give Kentucky voters the chance to weigh in on the matter. Both chambers have Republican supermajorities.
House Speaker David Osborne stopped short of commenting on its prospects Wednesday, noting there were “pretty strong opinions on it on both sides” among House members in previous years.
“We will start having those conversations with the caucus and try to get the pulse of it,” the speaker told reporters. “I wouldn’t predict at this point.”
Under Kentucky’s current system, there are elections three out of every four years. The bill’s supporters said that’s a reason to make the change.
“There’s voter fatigue having elections three out of every four years,” Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer said in supporting the measure.
McDaniel said if his proposal had won legislative approval a decade ago and been ratified by voters, Kentucky’s counties would have collectively saved more than $30 million by now from a reduction in elections, while the state would have saved nearly $4 million.
“And Kentuckians would have been spared countless hours of political ads interrupting their lives in odd-numbered years,” McDaniel said.
Supporters also said that voter turnout for the statewide offices would be much higher if those elections coincided with presidential elections.
Speaking against the bill, Democratic Sen. Reginald Thomas said Kentucky should continue its tradition of keeping statewide issues at the forefront by holding the odd-year elections. Overlapping statewide contests with presidential elections would overwhelm state issues, he said.
“This is purely a political measure designed to really be influenced by the presidential elections,” Thomas said. “And that is a bad way for Kentucky to go.”
If voters approve the change, the state would still have one more round of statewide elections in 2027. Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, both Democrats, won reelection last year while Republicans won the other constitutional offices.
Terms for governor and the other statewide offices would still last four years. But if the proposal wins ratification, candidates elected to those offices in 2027 would get an extra year added to their terms in order to bring those elections in line with the presidential election in 2032.
___
The legislation is Senate Bill 10.
veryGood! (561)
Related
- What is best start in NBA history? Five teams ahead of Cavaliers' 13-0 record
- Fantasy football sizzlers, fizzlers: Rookie receivers appear to be hitting their stride
- Warrant says Minnesota investigators found meth in house after gunbattle that wounded 5 officers
- Travis Barker's Wax Figure Will Have You Doing a Double Take
- Brianna LaPaglia Reacts to Rumors Dave Portnoy Paid Her $10 Million for a Zach Bryan Tell-All
- 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is a true story, but it underplays extent of Osage murders
- 5th suspect arrested in 2022 ambush shooting outside high school after football scrimmage
- Delayed homicide autopsies pile up in Mississippi despite tough-on-crime-talk
- Inflation ticked up in October, CPI report shows. What happens next with interest rates?
- Writer Salman Rushdie decries attacks on free expression as he accepts German Peace Prize
Ranking
- NASCAR Championship race live updates, how to watch: Cup title on the line at Phoenix
- Top Chinese diplomat to visit Washington ahead of possible meeting between Biden and Xi
- Lauryn Hill postpones Philadelphia tour stop to avoid 'serious strain' on vocal cords
- Dolphins, explosive offense will be featured on in-season edition of HBO's 'Hard Knocks'
- Rafael dissolves into a low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico after hitting Cuba as a hurricane
- Are you leaving money on the table? How 1 in 4 couples is missing out on 401 (k) savings
- DHS warns of spike in hate crimes as Israel-Hamas war intensifies
- California man wins $10 million after letting cashier choose his scratch-off ticket
Recommendation
-
Deion Sanders addresses trash thrown at team during Colorado's big win at Texas Tech
-
Coast Guard rescues 4 Canadians from capsized catamaran off North Carolina
-
32 things we learned in NFL Week 7: Biggest stars put on a show
-
Mother files wrongful death lawsuit against now-closed Christian boarding school in Missouri
-
Gold is suddenly not so glittery after Trump’s White House victory
-
Vic Fischer, last surviving delegate to Alaska constitutional convention, dies at age 99
-
Counting down the NBA's top 30 players for 2023-24 season: Nos. 30-16
-
Search for suspect in fatal shooting of Maryland judge continues for a fourth day