More input on nominees

When is a Democrat not a Democrat. Or, when is a Republican not a Republican. Apparently that ability to change colors occurs whenever the governor's office calls about an appointment to the highway commission.

The commission is structured to that three of the six members are Democrats and three are from the Republican party. And whenever the opposing party is in power that can cause problems. That scenario is exactly what played out recently when Gov. Bob Holden nominated a Democrat for a slot on the University of Missouri Board of Curators. At the confirmation hearing in the Senate some political campaign contributions to a Republican candidate surfaced. Naturally that didn't sit well with some folks and was probably embarrassing to the governor and nominee.

Rep. Lanie Black of Charleston has proposed a bill that would allow the governor to choose a nominee from three potential candidates submitted by party leaders in the General Assembly.

To some that might sound a little restrictive on the governor. The plum appointments--the highway commission being one--that a governor can make attract a lot of attention. On occasion that appointment turns out to be little more than political payback.

It's when a governor has to cross party lines, that is appoint a person to a seat on the commission that is designated for the "other side," that breakdowns can occur. Any governor is probably already going to be pretty well in-tune with the candidates from within his own party.

Finding a "Republican" that is suitable to a Democratic governor is just as hard as finding a "Democrat" acceptable to a Republican governor. The result is that the best qualified candidate might not get the appointment.

Allowing legislative leaders to submit names to the governor as appointees might prevent embarrassing situations such as occurred recently. What the legislative submission process would do is widen the pool of nominees a bit more.

Of course, there is no guarantee that nominees from legislative leaders wouldn't be political payback either, but we can hope.