The Fate of Senator Michael Bennet

Thursday, 19 November 2009 12:22

The Denver Post.com

Senator Michael Bennet has a lot of company, and it's not just Andrew Romanoff and Jane Norton. He is part of a growing fraternity of appointed senators asking voters to send them back to Washington after being handed the job by a state governor.

Since the Constitution was amended to provide for direct election of senators, governors have appointed 185 individuals to fill vacancies in the Senate - four of which were from Colorado. Each of the three previous appointed senators from our state ran in the following election. Only Republican Eugene Millikin was successful, narrowly winning by a single percentage point in 1942.

Currently the Senate holds five appointed senators with an additional appointee from Massachusetts soon to follow. Compared to their elected counterparts, the electoral success of appointed senators is considerably worse.

Full story here.