Rep. Eve Franklin did the honorable thing by resigning her state House seat before starting her new job in the state government. Franklin had been appointed to be the state mental health ombudsman.
Now if only the other Democratic legislators who have been appointed to unadvertised state jobs would do the same thing. Had Sam Kitzenberg, for instance, done so when he got his unadvertised state job, his district would have selected a new Republican to fill his Senate seat -- one who would have been unlikely to switch parties in order to hand control of the Senate to the Democrats.
The next legislature needs to enact legislation to deal with this situation, since such appointments show no signs of slowing down. If legislators want to accept such a state job, they should step down first. After being in the new job, if they want to run again for a legislative seat, they should then be free to do so.
What is important is that voters know that a given candidate is a state employee with a vested interest in their department's funding and who is perhaps beholden to the governor who appointed that candidate -- before they decide who to elect for that seat.
