Feb 9, 2020 3 min read

There’s plenty of reason to worry about America’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law lately. To be more specific, there’s plenty of reason to worry about the Republican Party’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law.

The refusal of the U.S. Senate majority to even hear witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial and to implicitly endorse the view that he can do whatever he pleases is just the most recent and most chilling example. Republicans in statehouses have imposed laws making it harder for people to vote, and have taken steps in places like Wisconsin and North Carolina to strip incoming Democratic governors of their power. Four years ago, Senate Republicans came up with the novel idea that a president should not be able to appoint a Supreme Court justice in the last year of his term – a notion that will almost certainly be forgotten if an unexpected vacancy comes up on the Supreme Court in the next few months.

Closer to home, state Rep. Josh Kail, a Republican who represents portions of Washington and Beaver counties, has introduced a bill that seems solely designed to prevent three prominent statewide Democrats from seeking higher office. Kail’s legislation would prevent anyone currently serving as the commonwealth’s attorney general, treasurer or auditor general from running for governor while currently holding those offices. And not only that, it would prevent them for running for governor for two years after they leave those offices.

If approved, it would prevent Josh Shapiro, Joe Torsella, and Eugene DePasquale from seeking the governorship in 2022, when a term-limited Tom Wolf departs. DePasquale has already announced he is going after a Harrisburg-area congressional seat this year, so this proposal would not apply to him and his current ambitions. But even if Shapiro and Torsella had opted to not run for reelection this year, the law would bench them in 2022.

Kail claimed in a news release that the law would prevent “grandstanding.”

“In our current politically volatile environment, it is critical that the citizens of the commonwealth can trust our row officers to be fair and impartial stewards who are focused solely on doing the jobs to which they are entrusted,” he said.

Hmm … forgive our skepticism about his motives.

First, Republicans didn’t evince similar concerns when Tom Corbett was elevated from the attorney general’s office to the governorship 10 years ago. They were similarly quiet in 2002 when Mike Fisher, then the sitting attorney general, unsuccessfully challenged Ed Rendell for the state’s top job.

And limiting it to just the governor’s office makes no sense. Bob Casey moved from the state treasurer’s office to the U.S. Senate in 2006 without undue “grandstanding.”

The only conclusion one can draw from this proposal is that Kail and his fellow Republicans don’t have much confidence in their stable of potential candidates going into 2022. Sure, there’s been talk of Pat Toomey leaving the U.S. Senate and coming back home to launch a gubernatorial bid. And Mike Turzai, Pennsylvania’s House speaker, had been talked about as a potential candidate, but he has announced that he is retiring. Someone will emerge, of course, to lead the ticket for the state GOP. But who that will be is an open question.

In the meantime, Kail and his fellow Republicans should respect the small-d democratic process and quit trying to limit voters’ choices.