Alabama House votes to end special U.S. Senate elections

The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday evening approved a bill that would end special elections for the state’s two U.S. Senate seats when vacancies occur.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, and coming after last year’s special election for U.S. Senate, would allow a governor’s appointee for a Senate vacancy to serve until the next general election in the state, rather than have the governor call a special election. The appointee would go through regularly scheduled primaries for that contest.

It passed 67 to 31 on a largely party-line vote after a two-hour filibuster from Democrats who said it would diminish voters’ voices in the process.

“You’re taking away from citizens the right to vote,” said Rep. Louise Alexander, D-Bessemer.

The bill does not address other offices in the state. Clouse said the bill aimed to save the state the costs of a special election, saying last year’s contest for U.S. Senate cost the state $11 million. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 other states use the methods outlined in Clouse's bill.

“This bill certainly has nothing to do with the personalities in that race,” Clouse said. “It has everything to do with the cost to the General Fund.”

The Montgomery County delegation vote fell down partisan lines. Republicans Reed Ingram of Pike Road, Dimitri Polizos of Montgomery and Chris Sells of Greenville voted for the bill. Democrats Alvin Holmes; John Knight and Thad McClammy of Montgomery and Kelvin Lawrence of Hayneville voted against it.

Governors currently appoint U.S. senators when vacancies occur, and have the latitude to schedule a Senate election “forthwith” following the appointment. That single word created controversy last year.

After appointing then-Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in February, then-Gov. Robert Bentley set the election date for the seat for November of 2018 — a move that drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans, who said it was ignoring the language of the law. Bentley resigned in April after pleading guilty to two campaign finance violations.

Following her ascension to the chief executive’s chair, Gov. Kay Ivey moved the election to December. Strange lost the Republican Senate primary to former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who lost December’s election to former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, the first Democrat to win election to the U.S. Senate from Alabama since 1992.

Clouse said he developed the bill in May and filed the first draft in August, before the Democratic and Republican primaries for the seat. But many Democrats were skeptical. Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, said the “timing was bad” on the bill. Jefferson County Democrats also raised the issue of Ivey appointing Republican Mike Anderton as Jefferson County District Attorney, following the conviction of former Jefferson County DA Charles Henderson, a Democrat, on perjury charges.

Rep. Christopher England, D-Tuscaloosa, also suggested that the bill would prevent voters from expressing their displeasure over issues like the appointment of Strange, whose office was investigating Bentley when he won the nod.

“You would have thought years ago we’d never be in a situation where the governor under investigation would have the ability to appoint the prosecutor in his case,” he said. “We never would have thought of that ... but in Alabama, it managed to happen.”

Clouse after the vote repeated his argument that the bill was about saving money, pointing out that the state's attorney general and chief justice were both appointed last year without an election.

"The governor still appoints under the present law, and you have appointments by the governor for all kinds of positions," he said.

The bill moves to the Senate.