Rite of passage: Knoll's untimely death calls for a succession fix
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She was a longtime public servant, a dedicated Democrat and a model of success for women in a political landscape too long run by men. When Catherine Baker Knoll died Wednesday from cancer at 78, she went out a pioneer, in office as the first woman elected lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania.
Though late in her service she was given to verbal slips and unsteadiness in presiding over the Senate, her chief duty as the state's No. 2 executive, there is no denying her political achievements. The McKees Rocks native was elected twice as state treasurer before becoming lieutenant governor.
As fate would have it, Mrs. Knoll's untimely departure turns a harsh light on the state House of Representatives. A chamber that makes more news for political infighting and financial misdeeds than for long-needed reforms has failed to address the state's perplexing form of succession in case of a vacancy for lieutenant governor.
The state constitution makes the Senate president pro tempore, in this case Republican Joseph Scarnati III of Jefferson County, acting lieutenant governor. That means he will be Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's second-in-command until the governor's term expires at the end of 2010.
This would be problematic under the best of circumstances since the law allows the Senate president to keep that post while filling the term of the lieutenant governor, shortchanging constituents in the senator's district while he fills two positions. But it is untenable when the governor and the president pro tem are of different parties.
It's not as if this scenario caught the Legislature by surprise. Lawmakers got fair warning in 2001 when Gov. Tom Ridge departed for Washington to head the Department of Homeland Security. Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker took over as chief executive and Senate President Robert Jubelirer did double duty as a senator and as acting lieutenant governor. In that case, though, the new governor and his lieutenant were of the same party.
Prior to Mrs. Knoll's illness, the Senate passed a remedy in April that would bring logic and common sense to the succession problem. It approved Senate Bill 822, a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the governor to appoint a new lieutenant governor, subject to majority approval by the Senate.
Given the process for amending the state constitution, this prudent change could have become law as early as next spring if the House had approved the bill earlier this year. But that didn't happen, so both chambers will need to start from scratch in the next legislative session, which begins in January, if the succession issue is to be addressed.
Too bad it took the death of a lieutenant governor to put the problem squarely before the General Assembly. We think if Catherine Baker Knoll could have a say, she'd want to see an orderly succession. Those mourning her loss could perform no finer tribute.
Correction/Clarification: (Published Nov. 15, 2008) The state House of Representatives would have had to pass a bill earlier this year if a referendum on the succession of lieutenant governors was to go before voters next spring. This editorial as originally published Nov. 14, 2008 incorrectly said the House had time to do so next week.
First Published November 14, 2008 12:00 am
