Fetterman demonstrates why lieutenant governor role is obsolete
Pennsylvania’s relatively useless office of lieutenant governor has been in the news lately. Generally speaking when the lieutenant governor makes headlines the reason is not good, and so it was with the latest kerfuffle.
The only actual duty of the lieutenant governor is to preside over the state senate. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, has only been on the job for six months and hasn’t quite gotten the hang of how to run the chamber in an orderly fashion. There are rules of procedure which were unanimously agreed upon by all the senators at the beginning of the session.
The Left, however, is fully bought into the old saying that rules are like pie crusts, made to be broken. Such was the case in late June when senate Democrats were on the cusp of losing a vote to lard on an additional layer of welfare benefits.
A dust-up ensued that degenerated into chaos on the senate floor with Republican Leader Jake Corman red-faced and shouting for order while Fetterman wondered about as befuddled as a liberal at a Trump rally.
That aside it was yet another embarrassing chapter in the history of Pennsylvania’s woebegotten office of lieutenant governor. That the current occupant of the office could not even competently perform his one and only constitutionallyproscribed duty speaks volumes about the fecklessness of the office. He has instead been gallivanting around Pennsylvania on a so-called “listening tour” in advance of efforts to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
The 67-county tour had all the hallmarks of a campaign swing which, truth be told, is the real reason for Fetterman’s road trip.
Let us not forget that Fetterman’s first run for statewide office was for United States senator in 2016. He lost that primary to Katie McGinty who went on to lose to Pat Toomey. That seat comes up again in 2022 — the same year Fetterman’s term as lieutenant governor ends. It’s not hard to connect the dots.
The office of lieutenant governor, however, has not historically been an effective stepping stone into higher office. Setting aside the anomaly of Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker becoming governor in 2001 upon the resignation of Gov. Tom Ridge, no lieutenant governor has moved onto a higher office since 1966 when Raymond P. Shafer was elected to succeed Gov. William Scranton.
Other lieutenant governors, including Raymond Broderick, Ernest Kline William W. Scranton III and Mark Singel have run unsuccessfully for higher office. Since John Latta became the first lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 1875, only Schafer and Arthur H. James, who was elected lieutenant governor in 1926 and governor in 1938 have gone on to win the top office.
In another historical anomaly, Lt. Gov. John Cromwell Bell Jr. became governor for 19 days in 1947 after Gov. Edward Martin resigned to take a seat in the United States Senate. Interestingly, no Pennsylvania lieutenant governor has ever gone on to serve in the United States Senate.
Controversies surrounding Mike Stack, the incumbent Fetterman ousted in last year’s primary election, have resulted in calls to amend the Pennsylvania state constitution to eliminate the office. Such proposals would resolve the succession issue by placing the President of the Senate next in line for the governorship and allow the body to operate on its own.
The time has come to end the spectacle — and cost to taxpayers — of an office that is not only useless, but has proven to be a distraction to the actual function of governing.