I would like to briefly respond to a recent editorial, Jan. 25, in the Bangor Daily News which was less than positive about my bill to create the office of lieutenant governor.

I attributed to me a scenario whereby a legislative coup is staged in the Senate when the senate president and some Democratic senators are missing. The GOP minority then installs a new governor. In fact, this scenario was outlined by Rep. John L. Martin when, battling to retain the speakership, he rejected an opinion of the attorney general (requested by myself) that a majority of either legislative body could remove presiding officers. In the article in the BDN by A. Jay Higgins, Martin’s scenario was fleshed out. Not much different than the “bizarre” appellation in this newspaper, I was quoted that it was “far-fetched” at best.

The primary reason why I originally submitted legislation to create a lieutenant governor — a month before the “constitutional crisis” conjured up by the speaker, and initially rejected 10-0 by the Legislative Council — was because I believed the person first in succession to the governorship should, like the governor, have a statewide base of support. In other words, I wanted the equivalent of the vice president nationally, who is popularly elected. It is much better for that kind of statewide officer to succeed than one who, at best, represented about 35,000 Maine citizens.

I urge the NEWS to rethink its position on this bill which would put Maine in accord with practically every other state in the union. Incidentally, the same editorial endorsed another bill which provides for citizen recall of the governor and other elective officials. That also is one of my bills, so a .500 batting average is acceptable in my book. Rep. William Lemke D-Westbrook