Before the Arizona legislature adjourned for the year, it passed SCR 1013. The proposed constitutional amendment will be on the November 2010 ballot. It asks voters if they wish to re-name the Secretary of State as the Lieutenant Governor. See this story.
Arizona has never provided for an officer named “Lieutenant Governor”, and instead has always said that the Secretary of State will become Governor if there is a gubernatorial vacancy. The measure also provides that Governor and Lieutenant Governor will be elected as a pair in November, although the two offices would continue to be separate in the primary. This system of separate voting for the two offices in primaries, but together in the general election, has not been successful in Illinois. The Arizona legislature should probably have provided for a proposed change that would require teaming up in the primary as well.
I agree with the disparity between the primary and general election, but I think I would vote for this anyway. Getting an unelected governor was bad enough, but getting one of the opposite party is a fairly serious undermining of the will of the people.
It’s possible in many– if not most– states for the governor and the lieutenant governor to be from different parties.
President Lincoln was re-elected in 1864 with a Democratic vice president. So when Lincoln was assassinated, that Democrat, Andrew Johnson, succeeded him.
Arizona secretaries of state have succeeded to the governorship on other occasions. This happened when Gov. Evan Mecham was recalled, and again when Gov. Fife Symington resigned after being convicted of a felony; both governors were Republicans. Mecham was succeeded by a Democrat and Symington by a Republican.
Of course, Arizona’s current Gov. Brewer is a Republican who succeeded Democratic Gov. Napolitano when the latter resigned to join President Obama’s cabinet.
#2: In fact, Gov. Mecham was removed from office by the state legislature, although a recall campaign had been launched.
Governor Mecham was wrongly impeachment by the state legislature because they had a temper tantrum when he defeated their candidate for governor in the primary.