Re: [OT] Question about rules around appointments

On Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:23:53 -0500, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
 

I see that Trump is hoping to appoint at least two members of the House
to posts in his government: Elise Stefanik as UN Ambassador and Matt
Gaetz as Attorney-General. I know that Gaetz has already resigned his
seat but haven't heard if Stefanik has too.
>
Do House members have to resign their seats before they qualify for
senior jobs like this? It seems odd to me that they would give up their
seats prior to actually getting confirmed in the job. After all,
Republican control of the House is very narrow. I'm assuming that
special elections will be held to replace Stefanik and Gaetz and there
seems like at least SOME risk that those seats could be lost to the
Democrats, meaning that control of the House could be lost to the
Democrats if enough of the not-fully-counted seats go their way.

 Simple answer is no, House members don't have to resign just because
they were nominated for a job in the Trump administration. It's
speculated that Gaetz went ahead and resigned to hopefully keep the
House investigation into the underage sex accusations against him
under wraps. As to what happens with the empty seats I think it may
depend on each states rules but typically the Governor of the state
will nominate someone to hold the seat until there can be an election.
I know there will be special elections held but I'm not sure if that's
always the case or if the person selected by the Governor can hold the
seat until the normal time for the seat to be up for re-election. >
As for the chance of the seats going to the Dems, I think that's at 0%
chance as those two seats will be filled by Republican Governors and
are in solidly Republican districts and so when the elections are held
the voters are likely to choose a Republican.

It would make more sense to me to nominate Gaetz and Stefanik but leave
them in the House until their appointments are approved; if they are NOT
approved, they'd still have their seats in the House rather than
potentially losing them to the Dems.