Uncer­tain sta­tus of McConnell could cre­ate legal firestorm over pos­si­ble replace­ment

Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R‑KY) extend­ed hos­pi­tal­iza­tion is draw­ing new atten­tion to an unre­solved legal ques­tion in Ken­tucky that could trig­ger a high-stakes court bat­tle if the long­time Repub­li­can sen­a­tor were unable to com­plete the remain­der of his term.The ques­tion car­ries added urgency because Kentucky’s revised Sen­ate vacan­cy law cre­ates a nar­row win­dow for hold­ing a spe­cial elec­tion before this fall’s already sched­uled Sen­ate race, rais­ing the stakes if the for­mer Repub­li­can Sen­ate major­i­ty leader’s seat were to become vacant in the com­ing weeks.McConnell, 84, has remained hos­pi­tal­ized since June 14 fol­low­ing what his office has described only as a med­ical emer­gency. While Sen­ate lead­ers and his staff have insist­ed he is recov­er­ing, cou­pled with Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader John Thune (R‑SD) and oth­ers …