Rule of Law
Why doesn’t the legislature just cut to the chase and write a law that states that if the governor is a Democrat he can appoint a Senator, but if the governor is a Republican, an election must be held.
Seriously, when the writing of law becomes this political (we all live in this state and know the ugly history of this issue), there is only one word: corruption! The legislature is eventually putting its very legitimacy at stake.
No matter what mental gymnastics you use, rewriting law like this undermines our “rule of law”.