Bill to amend the ASUI president pro tempore election process fails again
There has been considerable discussion about how the ASUI president pro tempore should be elected, said President Nate Fisher at Wednesday’s ASUI meeting.
Fisher said he stands firm in his position that the pro tempore should be elected by people who are going to work with and under the position.
“I think that is the duty and the right of the people that you elect to office,” Fisher said. “I think that we should be developing and fostering our future leaders, rather than hindering their abilities … by not allowing them to elect their leader and someone that’s going to be the head of their ASUI Senate.”
The pro tempore is elected at the beginning of the fall semester by the new members of Senate, and a bill, S15-16, proposes to amend this. If passed, the current Senate, made up of many senators who will no longer be in the Senate next fall, would get to elect the new pro tempore.
The proposal was originally part of bill S15-11, which was vetoed by Fisher. The bill was separated into two bills with a motion to override the veto. The motion to override the veto for S15-16 failed. It was brought back this week with a motion to amend.
ASUI Sen. Brianna Larson, sponsor of the bill, said supporting the measure that it is not a vote of no-confidence in future senators.
“This is just trying to fix a problem that we saw in the pro temp transition period” Larson said. “We still believe that newly elected senators are capable of voting for their pro temps.”
Sen. Stetson Holman, next year’s ASUI vice president, proposed the amendment of the bill to take effect in the fall. He said if the bill were to go into effect this week, they would have had to elect the new pro tempore right away. The motion to amend the bill passed.
Holman asked the senators to look back on when they elected their first pro tempore.
“You are coming into Senate,” Holman said. “You are not an Idaho State legislator. You did not just run an election and are familiar with Idaho state politics. You are a freshman or a sophomore in most instances, and you are being told to elect someone who is going to be doing all the administrative tasks for the ASUI Senate.”
Holman said he believes new senators don’t know the character of a pro tempore. He said new senators often have someone telling them who to vote for, and he doesn’t believe it gives the senators a good enough understanding of the candidate.
Fisher nodded his head vigorously in agreement as Sen. Kate Ricart spoke out against the bill.
“I think that maybe we need to focus on changing our ways in different areas,” Ricart said. “Such as getting the new senators more involved earlier in the process before they come to the first Senate meetings.”
She said current senators should be more transparent with incoming members and encourage them to get to know the returning ASUI senators. By doing this, new senators would get to know everyone and would be better equipped to elect their own pro tempore.
Mary Malone can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @InkSlasherEdit