BOISE - Sen. Bob Nonini proposed legislation Wednesday which he says would make it clear in Idaho law that state legislators need to verify whether their substitutes at the Legislature reside within the legislative district they're representing.

Calls from some of Nonini's constituents about a recent issue related to a North Idaho substitute legislator living in the wrong district led to Nonini creating the measure, the state senator said.

"This arose out of an issue in my legislative district, when one of the House members from District 3 was ill and wasn't able to serve (at the Legislature) for the first three weeks, named a replacement, and the replacement did not live in the district," Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, told the Senate State Affairs Committee.

After the measure was introduced in the committee Wednesday morning, Nonini said the idea for it stems from the situation in January where Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, mistakenly appointed Post Falls businessman John Chambers to substitute for him at the Legislature.

It turned out that Chambers didn't live in District 3.

"I'm sure it was definitely an honest mistake by Rep. Henderson," Nonini said in an interview.

Henderson chose Chambers as a substitute while Henderson was out for three weeks in January recovering from hip surgery. Chambers later announced that he would run for the District 3 legislative seat that the now-retiring Henderson currently occupies, but it turned out that following 2012's redistricting process, Chambers actually now resides in District 2.

Chambers subsequently withdrew his legislative candidacy.

"I'm just trying to make it a cleaner way so we all understand that, not just Rep. Henderson," Nonini said. "He's one of 105 of us, 70 House members and 35 senators. We should all have a clearer understanding of what's the proper way to name a replacement that's going to serve for a week, or two or three weeks."

As to the new legislation, Nonini told the Senate State Affairs Committee that penalties for choosing a legislative substitute from the wrong district should come later, from voters at the ballot box.

"I guess the ultimate responsibility is that legislator and the voters in that legislative district," Nonini said. "If they didn't like the action of the legislator naming someone outside the district, they wouldn't have to re-elect then, that legislator, when he returned to office."

"I don't think it's really the responsibility of anyone but that legislator and the voters of that district," he added.