According to this story by Anthony York over on Capitol Weekly’s website, Speaker Bass may schedule a vote for her successor as Speaker for as early as next week. The article says that this will be a voice vote.
This is a terrible idea.
Republicans deserve some respect and the ability to have some pride. This is best facilitated by a process that allows more than simply a motion for the anointed candidate by the Democrats to become speaker on a voice vote. As a matter of fact, under that system, there is no way for a Republican legislator to make it clear that they do not, in fact, approve of or cast a vote for whichever liberal the Dems put up for the top job.
In the ideal scenario, the Democrats will accept a process whereby Republicans can place the name of their leader, Sam Blakeslee, into nomination for Speaker. Blakeslee will get only 28 votes (one GOP seat is vacant until January) and will lose the election, but will be able to stand tall for the Republican Party — and every Assembly Republican will have the pride of knowing they cast a vote for member of their own party to be Speaker.
In a less than ideal scenario, if the Democrats simply won’t allow Republicans this very reasonable option, then Republican legislators need to insist on a recorded vote, so that they can at least record their "NO" vote against whomever the Democrats put forward.
Short of the Democrats allowing a recorded vote (they control the process completely), then Republicans need to either scream "NO" so loudly that it would be laughable to somehow say it was a unanimous vote. Republicans should also then sign a letter telling anyone who cares to know that the GOP is not responsible for the election of a liberal Democrat to run the State Assembly.
If I were a Republican legislator, and I couldn’t get some mechanism in place to let my constituents know that I was not and would not vote for a liberal Democrat as Speaker, I would boycott the election vote all together..
December 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Again, this post won’t get Assembly Republicans any “respect.” In fact, just the opposite.
The Speaker of the Assembly is not just the leader of the majority caucus. He/she is the leader of the institution. A vote for the Speaker doesn’t mean you support their politics; it means you support their election as the leader of the body.
I’m not sure what it is you expect to gain from making your party literally sound like the “party of no” it has become in Sacramento. Emulating Congress isn’t a smart move.