PHOENIX β A first-term state lawmaker wants to curb votersβ ability to choose the stateβs U.S. senators.
The proposal by Rep. Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, would leave intact the general election process where voters get the last word. He canβt touch that β the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which took effect in 1913, requires that senators be directly elected.
But Granthamβs resolution, HCR 2022, would limit votersβ choices in November to only those candidates that state legislators from each major party determine are worthy. Those choices would be only Republicans and Democrats: His proposal contains no method for minor parties to name their own candidates, and no way for independents to run in the general election unless they somehow got the blessing and nomination of partisan legislators.
His measure has not yet been set for a hearing.
Grantham said change is needed: βThe problem with the current system is that United States senators really have no accountability back to the state right now.β
Prior to the 17th Amendment, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Grantham said this was meant to be a check and balance on the power of the popularly elected members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
He said the former process also made senators recognize they were beholden to state lawmakers.
Under his proposal, the Republicans from both the state House and Senate would get together and nominate two people, with the Democrats doing the same. Voters in November would then get their choice from among those four.
The same process would play out every six years as the terms were up. The incumbent would have to make the case to legislators that he or she deserved another shot at re-election.
βThereβs a very good chance that that person may not get the nomination if they did not work with the state β¦,β Grantham said.
