LAWMAKER: CHANGE SECRETARY OF STATE’S TITLE TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
By STEPHANIE SANCHEZ
Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX (Tuesday, Dec. 4) _ Arizona voters would be better informed about who is in line to replace the governor if the secretary of state’s title were changed to lieutenant governor, a state lawmaker says.
“People who are voting for secretary of state should note that they are also electing the person next in line for governor,” said Sen. Chuck Gray, R-Mesa.
Gray has introduced a resolution, SCR 1002, calling for lawmakers to offer a constitutional amendment for voters to consider. Under Gray’s proposal, the duties of the office would remain the same.
Gray said the line of succession is no small issue in Arizona, where secretaries of state have replaced governors three times since the 1970s. The most recent case was in 1997, when Jane Dee Hull, a Republican, replaced Republican Gov. J. Fife Symington following Symington’s federal fraud conviction, which was later overturned.
Secretary of State Jan Brewer, a Republican, said she supports the name change because it would make things clear to voters.
“People who move in from other states unfortunately don’t understand that the secretary of state is second in line,” Brewer said.
This isn’t the first time a lawmaker has raised the issue. Brewer said she pushed for the change many times when she was in the Legislature.
Gray said the change would make voters take a harder look at the qualifications of the person performing the secretary of state’s duties, which include overseeing elections and filing government and business transaction records.
“It’s making sure the voters are informed of that one important elected position,” Gray said.
Arizona, Oregon and Wyoming are the only states that elect a secretary of state who is first in line to succeed the governor, according to the National Lieutenant Governors Association.
Twenty-four states elect the governor and the lieutenant governor as a team, and 18 states elect the governor and the lieutenant governor separately.
Two other Arizona secretaries of state have succeeded governors in the past 30 years:
_ In 1988, Democrat Rose Mofford succeeded Republican Gov. Evan Mecham, who was impeached and convicted.
_ In 1977, Democrat H. Wesley Bolin succeeded Democratic Gov. Raul Castro, who resigned to become U.S. ambassador to Argentina. Bolin died several months later and was replaced by Attorney General Bruce Babbitt, a Democrat. State law governing succession requires the person moving up to have been elected, so the secretary of state appointed by Bolin _ Mofford _ wasn’t eligible.