> And state legislators appointing senators would make them a lot more visible and make state elections more important. At the very least, it's debatable wheth

> And state legislators appointing senators would make them a lot more visible and make state elections more important. At the very least, it's debatable whether a state legislature's (hypothesized) collective power to appoint U.S. senators would be an especially-salient consideration for voters in individual legislative races. Quaere whether any light might be shed by data available from before adoption of the 17th Amendment.