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The 17th Amendment Resurfaces As A Campaign Issue
The 17th Amendment Resurfaces As A Campaign Issue
The 17th Amendment Resurfaces As A Campaign Issue
MH
At a recent town hall meeting, Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller (R) became the latest
candidate to suggest that he'd be in favor of repealing the 17th Amendment, which calls for
the direct election of senators. Following a few days of "no comment" on the remarks -- as
well as charges by rivals Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) and Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams (D)
that he is an extremist who wants to "repeal the 20th Century" -- Miller appears to have
distanced himself from the comment, saying in a statement that changing the Constitution is
not a "practical solution" to the problems in Washington.
"If it weren't for Senators like Lisa Murkowski, voters wouldn't be talking about repealing
the 17th amendment," said Miller. "Voters are frustrated by the bailouts, cap & trade and the
direction of our country. I share those frustrations and that is why I'm running for the U.S.
Senate. Amending the constitution is not the practical solution to changing the problems in
DC, changing the people who are there is."
The Miller brouhaha is just one of several races where the 17th Amendment has cropped up
as an issue -- a rarity in just about any election cycle. Let's start with a very brief history of
the 17th Amendment as political football over the last decade (or so) in campaigns.
In April 2004, a different Miller (then-Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) introduced legislation to
repeal the amendment; not surprisingly, he didn't get very far. Four months later, the issue
reared its head in then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama's (D) Senate campaign; Obama's
Republican rival, Alan Keyes, said that 17th Amendment repeal was a "critical" issue in his
campaign.
In 2006, Utah state Sen. Howard Stephenson (R) proposed what he termed a "soft repeal" of
the amendment allowing state legislators to select Senate candidates. Sens. Bob Bennett (R)
and Orrin Hatch (R) came out strongly against the proposal.
Since then, the issue had largely disappeared -- until this cycle.
As most candidates who have at floated the idea of repealing the 17th Amendment have
acknowledged, the issue is not likely to be at the top of most members of Congress' lists
after November. The fact that it has lit up so many campaigns, however, is one of the
hallmarks of this cycle's more unusual races, as well as a testament to voters' dissatisfaction
with the current state of government and the growing power of the tea party movement.
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