Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
E-mail: mailbox@governing.comTwitter: @governing
Say what you will about Arizona's new immigration law, but it's not nearly as mystifying as the decision the state's legislature made while forwarding a constitutional amendment to the voters to create a lieutenant governor's office (by renaming the secretary of state). From Capitol Media Services:
But the plan going to the ballot for voter ratification has a twist: Whoever won each party's nomination for lieutenant governor at the primary would then run as a ticket with the party's gubernatorial hopeful.
That "twist" would give Arizona the same system as Illinois -- the one that compounded the Scott Lee Cohen debacle and the one the Illinois Senate just voted unanimously to eliminate.
If there's something to be said for this system, it's that it would make a great reality show: Take two politicians who hate each other and who disagree on everything, then force them to spend every day for months trying to persuade voters that they'll work in tandem to fix all the state's problems. If they win, their prize is four more years together.
Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
E-mail: mailbox@governing.com 
GOVERNING Politics is the place for news and analysis on campaigns and elections. If there's a ballot measure in California, a legislative election in Alabama, a mayoral election in Anchorage or a governor's race in Rhode Island, GOVERNING Politics probably is writing about it. We love everything about state and local politics, from polls and campaign ads to policy debates and demographic trends.
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