Re: Government question (no politics involved)
Here's what the constitution says about representatives:
Article I, Section. 2.
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When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
In other words, the Governor of the state with the vacancy must call a special election to fill the congressional seat.
Senate vacancies follow a more complicated path, because the method of electing senators has changed over time. Originally, the constitution provided the following remedy:
Article I, Section. 3.
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Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.
The majority of this clause splits the senate into three different election cycles, so that every two years a third of the Senate seats are up for grabs. Because senators at this point were elected by the state legislatures (
not the People directly) the Governor of a state got to recess appointments to the Senate until that state's legislature next met, at which point the given legislative bodies would pick the new senator for the remainder of the existing term.
However, the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1912, gave the power to elect senators directly to the People of the respective states. This required a new method of filling vacancies:
AMENDMENT XVII
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When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
Under the new system, the Governor of a state appoints a new senator until a special election is held under rules set forth by the state legislature. Because of the wide latitude granted state legislatures for handling Senate vacancies, the power of the Governor and the mechanisms of the special election vary from state to state.
Gubernatorial vacancies are handled by the method laid out in the state's constitution. Since each state's constitution is different, the method is quite different. However, 42 of the 50 states in the U.S. have a lieutenant governor who either assumes the duties or the actual office of the governor. One exception, until recently, was New Jersey. When Governor Christine Todd Whitman resigned to head up the EPA under the Bush administration, the duties of the governor fell upon Donald DiFrancesco, the President of the New Jersey state senate. He served for a year, until the election of Jim McGreevey. Just under three years into McGreevey's term, he resigned amid a huge sex scandal involving the Governor and a gay affair with one of his staffers. The duties of the office fell upon Richard Codey, who'd replaced DiFrancesco as President of the New Jersey state senate. Codey served as acting governor for nearly two years, when Jon Corzine was elected. However, one year into his term, Corzine was badly injuried in an auto accident, and Codey resumed the duties of governor during Corzine's recovery. Altogether, New Jersey has had an acting governor as much as it's had an elected governor so far this century. Largely as a result of this mess, New Jersey voters in 2005 approved an amendment to the state constitution creating the office of the Lieutenant Governor. Starting in 2009, New Jersey will be the 43rd state with a Lieutenant Governor.
More recently in my home state, Lieutenant Governor David Paterson became New York's 55th governor after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prositution scandal.
