State lawmakers would have 30-days to test-drive a campaign for Congress – and after that, their state seats would be declared vacant, according to legislation dropped by state Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus.

S.B. 175 has only McKoon’s signature, so movement is highly unlikely this session. But the lawmaker says next year – when the dominos are really likely to fall as a result of an open U.S. Senate seat – is another matter.

Here’s the gist of the brief language:

The seat of any member of the General Assembly shall be declared vacant on the thirtieth day following such member filing a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission declaring that such member is a candidate for a federal elective office, provided that such member's seat shall not be vacated if the member terminates his or her candidacy and files appropriate notice of termination with the Federal Election Commission prior to such thirtieth day.

Courts have ruled that state laws forbidding campaign fund-raising during sessions of the Legislature don’t apply to state lawmakers running for federal office. But there is no barrier to preventing conflicts of candidacies, McKoon said.

The senator said he has had conversations about past situations involving lawmaker-candidates “and what that did on the public policy aspect.”

Not that bills would ever, ever be introduced in the state Capitol for the sole purpose of scoring campaign points. Whoever heard of such a thing?

“If you want to run for federal office and want to be focused on federal issues, then you should be able to do that. But I think it does a disservice to the people you’re representing,” the Columbus senator said.