Bill Brauch is a retired Iowa lawyer. He served as an Assistant Iowa Attorney General from 1987 to 2015, and was Director of the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s office from 1995 until 2015. He is a 1987 graduate, with distinction, of the University of Iowa College of Law. He is presently chair of the Polk County Democrats. 

An Iowa constitutional amendment on the November ballot would insert in the state constitution a process for filling a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor. Under the amendment, if the governor dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the lieutenant governor would assume the office of governor for the remainder of the term, thereby creating a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor, which the new governor could fill by appointment.

While Iowa currently has a vacancy in that office following the resignation of Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg, the governor already has the power to appoint Gregg’s successor. This proposed amendment was driven by what happened in 2017 when Governor Terry Branstad was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to China, and the powers of the governor devolved onto Kim Reynolds. 

At the time Reynolds attempted to appoint Gregg as lieutenant governor. However, Attorney General Tom Miller issued a formal opinion stating that the governor lacked that authority under the Iowa Constitution and that Reynolds would have to wait until Iowans chose a new lieutenant governor at the next general election.

In response, Reynolds appointed Gregg as “Acting Lieutenant Governor” and treated him as if he held that office. However, in that role Gregg was not in the line of succession and would not have become governor had Reynolds been unable to continue in the office for whatever reason. As it happened, she won the next general election, and Gregg became the lieutenant governor in January 2019.

Current Iowa law does not authorize the parties’ gubernatorial candidates to nominate their running mates in a general election. While the gubernatorial candidate selects a running mate, that person does not become the official nominee for lieutenant governor until nominated as such by their respective state parties. Iowa Code section 43.123 provides that the parties nominate their lieutenant governor candidates at their state conventions. The state convention delegates can reject the gubernatorial nominee’s choice, and they may have good reasons for doing so.

In a similar situation, the U.S. Constitution includes a process for the president to fill a vacancy in the office of vice president. Under the 25^th Amendment, if the office of vice president is vacant, the president is required to nominate a new vice president. That nomination goes to the U.S. House and Senate, which both must confirm the nominee by majority vote before the nominee may be sworn in as vice president.

The proposed Iowa amendment on the ballot this fall has no such fail-safe. It would give full authority to only one person, the governor, to choose and confirm the new lieutenant governor. There are no checks on the choice akin to those in the Iowa Code for general election nominations, or under the 25^th Amendment for the confirmation of a new vice president. 

The bottom line in all of this is that the people decide their lieutenant governor in a general election when they vote for governor. This amendment takes that vote away from the people and places it in the hands of the governor. It gives the governor too much power for my taste.

Folks, this is supposed to be a democracy, not an autocracy. We can do better than this. I’m voting “no.”