News reports today inform us that two Senators have had brain surgery in the past day.
The State Senator from the SF Valley, Alex Padilla, underwent surgery to remove a 'malformation' from the lining of his brain. The former city councilman (and future State Senate President) is said to be recuping well and should be back to work in January when the State Senate convenes. Always the workaholic, Alex says this experience will help us this year when the state legislature begins its work on healthcare reform.
In more frightful news, Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota yesterday, experienced stroke-like symptoms and was taken to a Washington DC area hospital. Doctors revealed that the 59 year old Senator did not have a stroke, but instead was suffering from bleeding of the brain. He had surgery last night and is now in critical, yet stable condition.
This is bad bad news for a number of reasons. The US Senate is divided with 51 Dems and 49 Republicans. Should Johnson be unwilling or unable to serve out the rest of his term, South Dakota's Republican Gov Mike Rounds would be able to appoint someone to fill out the rest of his term, thus spliiting the House of Lords 50/50. (Would it be possible that GOP Gov Rounds would appoint someone other than a Republican -- NOT!) Under such a scenario, the Reeps would have the advantage since VP Cheney could cast the deciding vote in any 50/50 tallies.
You may remember in 2000, when the Dems and the Reeps were divided 50/50, they agreed to a power sharing agreement where the Reeps were the majority party, yet the parties had equal representation on committees. This was until Jim Jeffords of Vermont switched parties and gave the Dems a one vote advantage -- that they eventually lost in the 2002 mid term elections.
Given the most recent election and the sinking feeling Reeps must be experiencing, I would not expect them to agree to such a power sharing scenario.
Lets wish Senator Johnson well. Not only for him and his family, but for the country.
Its sometimes hard to believe that so much is relying on the heart beat of one man (or woman).
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3 comments:
Is there any chance of a special election to fill Johnson's seat?
Here you go, looks like we might be looking at a special election in South Dakota:
http://legis.state.sd.us/statutes/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=12-11-1
Whoops -- spoke to soon. That language may be overridden by language specifying the date of the special as coinciding with the next general election:
http://mydd.com/story/2006/12/14/112915/71
Damn.
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