Special elections are expensive, and during the months-long interim, seats remain vacant, sometimes affecting legislative businesses. Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg wants to amend the state constitution to allow the governor to fill legislative vacancies, as long as appointees are from the same party as the departed legislator and are not rejected by the house to which they are appointed.
Superficially, that sounds reasonable. After all, the governor can fill U.S. Senate vacancies and those in other state offices, so why shouldn’t that power extend to the Legislature or even the congressional delegation?
However, as in sports, changes in a game’s rules also can affect the outcome – which explains why politicians inside and outside the Capitol are always tinkering with election laws. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/04/6208830/dan-walters-should-governor-be.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters