New rules sought for governor ascension

The Utah Constitution doesn't clearly allow Lt. Gov. Olene Walker to become governor when Gov. Mike Leavitt resigns to take a federal job, so the constitution should be changed.

That's the opinion of the Constitutional Revision Commission, a group of citizens, legislators and legal experts.

"We have an intolerable situation," said CRC member Rep. Scott Daniels, D-Salt Lake. "On its face, (the constitution says) the lieutenant governor only assumes the duties" of the departed governor.

If Utahns want the lieutenant governor to actually become the governor, "then we have to change" the constitution, he added. The constitution says one thing, but an opinion by Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says another — that Walker becomes the governor. "It is the worst of all cases," said Daniels, an attorney.

CRC members were careful — in fact, adamant — in saying Friday that Shurtleff's opinion issued earlier this summer is correct: Walker will become governor in title as well as duties when Leavitt is finally confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

And the CRC doesn't want to fan any leftover flames on the issue. A yet unnamed group of GOP legislators hinted this summer that a court ruling would likely deny Walker the title of Utah's first woman governor, should anyone take the matter to court.

"I want to make it clear that we (the commission) are not challenging Olene Walker, not challenging the attorney general's opinion," said commission member Robin Riggs, a former staff attorney for the Legislature.

No, indeed, said other commission members.

Yet one after another agreed with commission staff attorney Robert Rees, who said the "plain language" of the constitution says clearly that should a governor leave office, the lieutenant governor becomes the "acting" governor, but is not governor in title. The office of governor can only be filled at the next election, said Rees.

That is opposite of Shurtleff's opinion, which said that Walker would become governor in title as well as duties, and as such then has the right to appoint a new lieutenant governor to file her old job.

Since no one has challenged Shurtleff's opinion in court, when Leavitt resigns to take the EPA post (which could happen within a month or two, as soon as the U.S. Senate confirms him), then Walker will be sworn in as governor and she will soon thereafter appoint a new lieutenant governor.