Gowan’s bill just par for the course this year

It’s a pity, really, that Sen. David Gowan lost his nerve and didn’t press ahead with his proposal to allow the Legislature — not Arizona’s nearly 4 million voters — to decide who should be president.

But then, that’s what happens when people are watching.

The Sierra Vista Republican’s plan takes the prize for the most arrogant, undemocratic power grab of the year. Well, the most arrogant, undemocratic power grab of February, anyway.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 1006 would have asked voters to amend the state Constitution to give the Legislature the final word on which presidential candidate gets Arizona’s 11 electoral votes.

Oh, you and I would still be able to vote for president. It’s just that our votes wouldn’t count should the Legislature disagree with our choice.

“This is to bring the plenary power back to the legislative body where we have the sole authority on these issues and that’s the purpose of us pushing this forward,” Gowan explained late Tuesday evening when his bill was heard near the end of a marathon meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee he chairs.

Actually, the purpose of pushing this forward, Sen. Gowan, is because you and your fellow Republicans who control the Legislature are still fuming over the fact that a Democrat won Arizona’s presidential election for only the third time since 1952.

So you’re doing whatever you can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Thus come this year’s nearly two dozen Republican election “reforms,” proposing to make it more difficult to register to vote and more difficult to vote by early ballot and more difficult to find a convenient polling place on Election Day.

But Gowan’s bill — proposing that your vote won’t count in a presidential race, even if you can manage to find out how and where to vote — takes the top prize for sheer gall.

He’s relying on a provision of the U.S. Constitution that gives state legislatures the authority to decide the manner in which presidential electors are chosen. In fact, the Arizona Legislature decided that manner in 1956 when they passed a law declaring that the winner of the popular vote would get Arizona’s electors.

Now, 65 years later, a fair number of Republicans want to take that power back for themselves.

“Why even have a presidential election?” Sen. Sean Bowie, D-Phoenix, asked Gowan. “Why have voters vote on it if essentially the Legislature is going to be able to override whatever the voters vote for?”

Gowan assured Bowie that such a thing would not happen, apparently

forgetting Republican Sen. Kelly Townsend’s bill to overthrow last year’s election and award Arizona’s electoral votes to Donald Trump.

Townsend’s bill was moot by the time the Legislature returned to the Capitol in January and Republican Rep. Shawnna Bolick’s bill giving the Legislature the power to appoint presidential electors in future races was a nonstarter.

At least Gowan’s bill proposed asking voters for permission to take back the power. His proposed constitutional amendment would declare that the Legislature “has sole authority to appoint the presidential electors.” The plan was to put it on the November 2022 ballot.

In the end, Gowan held his bill. He didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to put his fellow party members in the position of having to take a public stand while the public was actually watching.

It’s a pity, really, because the results would have been eye-opening for the flabbergasted citizens of Arizona.

“I just moved to Phoenix and am shocked at the Republican party here,” a reader named Ken wrote, after reading my earlier column on the bill. “What can we do to stop this nonsense?”

“Who asked.

“It is shocking that they could even propose this,” echoed Jon.

Actually, it’s par for the course this year as our leaders prepare to enter Month 4 of their prolonged hissy fit over the 2020 election.

As for Gowan’s bill, it’s dead for now, but remember that no bad idea is really dead and gone until our leaders turn out the lights at the Capitol and call it a year.

I actually hope it'll come back to life. It seems to me entirely appropriate that we know where our leaders stand when it comes to respecting the will of the little people.

So please, Sen. Gowan, don’t be shy. Find a way to bring your bill back and urge your colleagues to have the courage of their convictions and put this proposal to a public vote in November 2022.

Right there on the same ballot where your own names will appear.

are

these

people?”

Cathy