Very soon, Gov. David Paterson will make known who he is appointing to the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will become President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state. Since her name surfaced more than a month ago, the political talk in New York has been about whom Paterson would appoint to fill the vacancy. While he may have wanted to drag out the process to be assured that Clinton would be confirmed by the Senate, Paterson has allowed a void to be created that has, rightly, resulted in criticism of not only his selection methods, but also the process being used.

As written in this column in November, Paterson was in a no-win situation with whomever he appointed. He was then saved from political disaster by the appearance of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg having an interest. Instead of acting quickly, he allowed her to be “rolled out to the public,” which was, at best, poorly handled and resulted in more criticism.

This week bills have been submitted by the Republican minorities in both the state Assembly and Senate asking that special elections be held to fill such vacancies. And while the political motives of the bills' authors might be questioned (one has to wonder if they would be so forthcoming if there was a Republican governor), they do have the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on their side.

In 1913, the Constitution was changed from allowing state legislatures to appoint senators to having a popular vote - it was a major step in improving the democratic process and moving away from the back-room deals cut to name senators when the Senate was first to convene in the 1780s. The election process is easily understandable and regular - what gets confusing is when vacancies do occur, as in the cases with Sens. Obama and Joseph Biden, as well as Clinton.

When the Constitution was amended nearly a century ago, the intent was to go to direct elections, and while there was language for exceptional circumstances, it was for just that - exceptional circumstances. The goal was not to concentrate power in one person, a governor, especially since it was being taken away from state Legislatures. Now, however, gubernatorial appointments have become the norm to fill Senate vacancies.

Yet, for members of the House and even in the state Legislature, special elections have to be called within a certain period. There are not appointments. Senate vacancies should be no different, or as Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco said this week, “We need an election - not a coronation.”

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com