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I have posted it before, but here is my brief as a Dem. If Torch resigns by next Monday, there must be a special election to coincide with the general election for his replacement to serve the balance of his term until next January.

Respectfully, a special election is not feasable as it takes months to coordinate everything from primaries to determining ballots to sending absentee ballots ... by the time a special election were held, it would be April if you started today.

Lautenberg will be on the ballot for that of course. Thus there will be two elections at once. One for the balance of the term, and one for the next term.

Respectfully, even if this were possible, there is no foundation in the law for this. The appropriate remedy would by for the NJ governor to appoint a senator to replace the Torch if the Torch resigned -- and I doubt that will happen.

Since all the ballots will have to be reprinted anyway, and since Lautenberg's name will appear in one election, is this not a special circumstance dictating that his name be on the ballot in the other?

If you reprint the ballots, you'll have to send the ballots out soon enough for all the absentee voters to receive and respond to them. Unlikely in the time frame left.

You are on the NJSC, and are fair minded. How do you rule?

I'd rule to follow the law, rather than make up new law to favor a particular political party whose problems are their own making. Had the Dems ouswted Torricelli when this garbage first came out, rather than give him a slap on the wrist for committing multiple felonies, then this whole problem would never have arisen.

By the way, if you think the Dems haven't thought about this line of argument, then you must think they are as stupid as plywood.

I don't think the Dems in congress are stupid at all. I think that they are scumbags.

They don't get their advice from brain dead talking heads on the tube.

No, they get it from "meathead" Rob Reiner and Barbra Streisand.

They get their advice from lawyers from Harvard law school that charge $400 an hour in D.C. And I am just a beat up old provincial lawyer in the boonies and I thought of it rather quickly.

I'm only a $300/hr lawyer from D.C., and I thought up just as many defenses in both law and equity rather quickly.

There is a specific statute requiring such an election when an incumbent resigns 30 days or more prior to a general election. An election for his replacement for the balance of his term must be scheduled coincident with the next general election. The statute has posted here on FR many times.

By the way do only $400 per hour DC lawyers read the statutes, and not $300 per hour ones? Sorry, I couldn't resist. I just have become interested in this food fight, and when I get interested, I get lean, and mean, and tough. Don't take it personally. It was just a rhetorical fight of fancy.

I believe you are correct. The governor can call a special election, buy he still must follow the statutory election procedure, including a primary if the satute calls for it. It would take months to set up.

If T resigned today, The governor could appoint someone to fill the remainder of the current term. This would not automatically put him on the ballot for the upcoming term.