Jim Sensenbrenner: “this is another amendment to gut the bill. All you need to do is look at the last three lines of the amendment that says…”

“this is another amendment to gut the bill. All you need to do is look at the last three lines of the amendment that says ``or otherwise ensure that all eligible candidates are given sufficient time to prepare for and participate in the election.'' A State could decide to postpone the election indefinitely because they decided that all the candidates needed to have 30 face-to-face debates, and that would fall into the catch-all clause. We need to have a specified time frame to reconstitute the House with elected Members, and that is why we have the time frame put down here. I am very interested in listening to the argument of the gentleman from Washington that completely misses the point. His side won a special election in Kentucky. I congratulate the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Chandler) for his victory. He did not win a primary election. He was not nominated by a Democratic Party convention and his opponent in the election was nominated by a Republican Party convention. The election of the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Chandler) to the House to promptly fill the vacancy caused by the election of Ernie Fletcher, his predecessor, as Governor of Kentucky is no less democratic than the election of those of us that went through primaries.”