My friend and long-time Connecticut blogger Gabe Rosenberg has an op-ed in the Hartford Courant on the sad practice of using appointments instead of elections to fill vacant Senate seats. I’m happy to say that like Gabe I’m an old fashioned democrat who likes to his senators chosen through elections. Gabe writes on the current Senate replacement manouvers in New York, Colorado, Illinois and Delaware:

I’m not saying that Bennet and Kennedy are unqualified or would make bad senators. On the contrary, they are accomplished public servants and are, by all accounts, brilliant. They would make excellent senators. But call me old-fashioned: I like my senators elected.

On second thought, they are unqualified, but not because they lack experience or talent. The only constitutional requirements for a senator are age, citizenship and residency. To which states should add one more: They must be elected.

Although those appointed in Illinois, Colorado and New York will serve only until the 2010 election, they have a built-in advantage should they choose to run then, when the voters will finally be able to pick their senators. Being an incumbent with two years to build name recognition and a campaign war chest, cement political ties and bring home pork — barring a public relations nightmare such as the Blagojevich Senate yard sale — is an invaluable leg up.

Ironically, the appointment that initially had the worst stink from the cigar smoke of a back-room deal turns out to be the only one that ultimately will allow a fair start for all the candidates in 2010. In Delaware, Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s replacement will be his chief of staff Ted Kaufman, who has pledged to serve only until a special election and not to use the appointment as a springboard to keeping the seat. The move is widely seen as a way to clear the field for Biden’s son Beau, who is Delaware’s attorney general, to win the seat in 2010.

To which I say: So what? At least he will be elected. To his credit, Beau has repeatedly rejected the opportunity to follow in his father’s footsteps via appointment.

Like Tom Geoghegan’s recent op-ed in the New York Times, Gabe’s piece adds to what continues to be a growing drum beat for massive reform of the Senate vacancy-filling process nationwide. The process in which four Senate seats will be simultaneously filled by Governors and not the electorate is enough to both reveal the shortcomings in current law and practices, as well as create the impetus for change. Gabe points out in his column that CT state representative Tim O’Brien is again planning on introducing legislation that mandates all Senate vacancies in Connecticut be filled through special elections. I’d hope that similar bills drop in at least Illinois, Colorado, and New York. And while the fine people of Delaware seem to already get that democracy is better than fiat, it’d be equally good to see that state take up legislation that mandates what Ted Kaufman is sensibly doing in practice.