Accident spurs discussion of governor’s succession

AUGUSTA – The need to consider the protocols for the line of succession to the governor’s office was never demonstrated Wednesday – but that didn’t stop reporters from asking.

“At times, a few were a little insensitive,” said Lee Umphrey, the governor’s communications director. “You’d think they might have first asked how the governor was before inquiring who was in charge.”

Despite losing consciousness and undergoing a battery of tests after his early morning car crash, Gov. John Baldacci remained the state’s chief executive throughout his stay at the Maine Medical Center even though one could argue that he was, in fact, incapacitated.

Maine was once a province of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and borrowed much of that state’s language for its state Constitution when it was admitted to the union in 1820. Unlike Massachusetts, however, Maine has no lieutenant governor’s post that places the largely ceremonial office holder into a position of authority whenever the chief executive is incapacitated.

The absence of a lieutenant governor does not mean Maine’s Constitution is silent on the issue of what should happen if the governor is unable to perform his duties. Rather than address incapacity, the Maine Constitution focuses on “vacancy” of the governor’s office and, at the moment, would require Maine Senate President Beverly Daggett to take charge of the state in a crisis.

“Whenever the office of governor shall become vacant because of the death, resignation or removal of a governor in office, or any other cause, the president of the Senate shall assume the office of governor until another Governor shall be duly qualified,” the Maine Constitution states.

In the event the offices of governor and Senate president are vacant at the same time, the speaker of the House of Representatives is the next in the gubernatorial batting order. The fourth person in the line of succession is the secretary of state.

The Maine Constitution also stipulates that whenever the governor has been continuously unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office for six months due to mental or physical disability, the “office shall be deemed vacant” through a declaration of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and adoption by two-thirds of the Legislature, allowing the Senate president to assume control.

The governor may also temporarily relinquish the office due to mental or physical disability to the Senate president by certifying the nature of the disability to the chief justice of the state supreme court. If the governor is unable to communicate the nature of the disability, the secretary of state may intervene and make that certification to the state supreme court.

In 184 years, a Maine Senate president has been required to take over the duties of governor on 12 occasions, the most recent taking place on Dec. 30, 1959, when Gov. John H. Reed succeeded Gov. Clinton Clauson, who died in office. Earlier that same year, Senate President Robert N. Haskell assumed the office of governor after Gov. Edmund S. Muskie was elected to the U.S. Senate.

There was some legislative discussion during the administration of Gov. Angus S. King about the need to be more specific about the transfer of power should a governor require hospitalization. Rickford K. McCarthy, chief of staff to Maine Senate President Beverly Daggett, said Wednesday it was ultimately decided the Maine Constitution provided enough guidance on the issue.

“I don’t see any urgency for action here,” he said.