Group vows lawsuit if Gov. Parson won’t call special election for KC Senate seats
A nonprofit government watchdog is promising to sue Gov. Mike Parson if he refuses to call a special election to fill two vacant Kansas City-area seats in the Missouri Senate.
Two Democratic state senators who represent most of Kansas City, Jason Holsman and Kiki Curls, resigned last week after receiving appointments from Parson to serve in his administration.
Both Holsman and Curls were set to leave the legislature in early 2021 because of term limits. With an election already scheduled for later this year, the governor is not expected to call a special election to fill the seats -- leaving most Kansas Citians south of the Missouri River without representation in the state Senate for the 2020 session.
Both senate offices will continue to be staffed in order to handle constituent issues.
David Roland, director of litigation at the libertarian nonprofit Freedom Center of Missouri, said that scenario is unacceptable and unconstitutional.
“The right to have representation in your legislative body is one of the most fundamental rights in our system of government,” Roland said. “It’s a significant aspect of being able to petition one’s government for redress of grievances. If you don’t have a state senator, you’re ability to petition your government is significantly hampered, and it puts you at a disadvantage to citizens elsewhere in the state.”
In January 2014, Roland sued then-Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon on behalf of 10 Missouri residents demanding that a court compel him to call special elections to fill four vacant legislative seats. He cited a state law that says the governor “shall, without delay, issue a writ of election” to fill vacant legislative seats.
Less than a month after the lawsuit was filed, Nixon called special elections for three of those four vacancies, although he scheduled them to coincide with the August primary.
Special elections are usually set to coincide with an already scheduled election, such as the municipal elections on April 7, although this is not a requirement. But once a special election is called by the governor, at least 12 weeks have to pass before balloting occurs, according to Maura Browning, spokeswoman for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
At this point, any special election called by Parson would fall beyond April 7 on the calendar.
Kelli Jones, the governor’s communications director, said in an email to The Star that “to my knowledge, there will be no special elections.” Jones said that the timing would make it “difficult to justify a special election that would also be running parallel to a normal election that would fill term-limited seats.”
Roland dismisses the governor’s concern about timing and notes that quickly scheduled special elections are not unusual when vacancies occur in other elected offices.
If this was a vacancy in a sheriff’s office, for example, state law mandates an election be held “on or before the tenth Tuesday after the vacancy occurs.” For a vacant Congressional seat, federal law requires that a special election take place “not later than 49 days after the Speaker of the House of Representatives announces that the vacancy exists.”
“There’s no just reason why a governor, facing vacancies in the legislature, would simply refuse to call a special election,” Roland said. “It’s an injustice, and it puts a tremendous burden on more than 300,000 citizens right to participate in our political system.”
In special elections there is no primary. Instead, political party committees in the Senate districts select the nominees.
The victor would hold the office until the winner of the November election was sworn into office next January. If the winner of the special election is also the winner of the November general election, that lawmaker would be eligible to serve for two four-year terms.
While a new state senator would would miss most of the session, Roland said they’d still be around for debate of the state budget and votes on a large chunk of bills that don’t typically get passed until the weeks before adjournment in mid-May.
They would also be in office for any special sessions that could be called by the governor, as well as the veto session in September where lawmakers consider whether or not to override gubernatorial vetoes.
“Legislators, although they are only formally in session part of the year, they represent their constituents year round,” he said. “That’s part of their job. It’s not just sitting in the state Capitol. It’s day-to-day service to constituents that legislators provide.”
Senate Minority Leader Gina Walsh, D-St. Louis County, said last week that she would like to see those seats filled, but “I’m realistic and I understand what the burden would be to the taxpayers.”
“You are asking Kansas City to have two very expensive elections within six months of each other,” she said. “Even less than that. A special (election) in a couple months or couple weeks, then in August and then in November.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 3:56 PM.
