Committee approves bill to add legislative role in filling certain vacancies; amendment package adopted

The House Committee of the Whole reported Senate Bill 105 favorably as amended after extended floor debate and multiple amendments. The bill would revise the temporary appointment process for vacancies in certain statewide offices (treasurer, insurance commissioner) and U.S. Senate seats by creating a legislative selection committee with input from both chambers and limiting appointments to members of the same political party as the departing incumbent for specified prior-election periods.

Representative Wagner, bill carrier, described SB 105 as a corrective to give the legislature a meaningful check on gubernatorial appointment power and to require that replacements be of the same party as the incumbent and have been party members in the two prior elections (committee language reduced the party-membership period in committee to two prior even-numbered general elections). Wagner said the bill would form a 12-member selection committee representing congressional districts and party leadership to choose three nominees for the governor, with a short process timeline for the governor to pick from those nominees.

Representative Blake Carpenter offered and successfully carried an amendment based on House Bill 2057 language to expand the process: the joint committee would select five candidates and the full legislature could convene in joint session to narrow to three nominees; the amendment added procedures for reconvening and for alternating committee chairmanship between the chambers. The floor also considered but rejected other amendments—including one that would have reduced the process back to gubernatorial appointment constrained only by party affiliation. Sponsors and critics debated cost, timing delays, potential gridlock between chambers, party-affiliation tests for nominees, and whether independent/ unaffiliated vacancy cases are addressed. The committee ultimately reported SB 105 as amended.