(Radio Iowa) – A proposed constitutional amendment on this year’s Iowa ballot would clarify the line of succession at the top of state government. Seven years ago, Kim Reynolds became governor when Terry Branstad resigned, but Iowa’s attorney general at the time said his reading of the constitution indicated Reynolds was becoming acting governor and didn’t have the power to select a new lieutenant governor.

State Treasurer Roby Smith was a state senator the following year, touting the proposal to give Iowa governors in similar situations authority to name a new lieutenant governor.  “When you buy insurance, you hope you never have to use it,” Smith said. “This is something that’s insurance that we’re putting in the state constitution. I hope we never have to use it, but it’s there…if we need it or the next generation needs it.”

Mary Wolfe of Clinton was a member of the Iowa House who raised concerns in 2022 about the proposed amendment that Iowa voters are seeing on their 2024 ballots. “We do need to do something, I agree,” Wolfe said. “That mess we went through last time this happened was not good, did not reflect well on anyone.” But Wolfe and other Democrats say the proposed amendment is flawed. They say the House and Senate should vote to confirm a lieutenant governor picked by a new governor who takes over in the middle of an elected governor’s term.

Bill Brauch is chairman of Polk County Democrats. “If the president resigns and the vice president takes over, if they name a new vice president that individual has to be approved by both houses of congress,” Brauch says, “but here, in this amendment, there’s no check on the governor.” Iowa Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufmann supports the amendment. “There is going to be a Democratic governor at some point and they’re going to benefit from this, too,” Kaufmann said. “…This is a no brainer.”

Election Day is NEXT Tuesday (November 5th).