How is it an oddity? In Canada the Prime Minister selects Senators, and their courts stopped efforts for him to use unofficial elections to decide who should be the next one in. Still, it is hardly as if we never did that in the US. Some states tried it at various times, with various levels of how official things were and whether popular vote, delegate, the upper or lower house of the state, or the Governor decided who the Senator would be. Still, it does stagnate things. So many compromise candidates for states with mixed leadership, so they don't have to get rid of them at a future election. Probably part of why the South has so many of the chairmanships in the Senate. They have always been very lopsided in what party was in control, so their Senators dug in until their position was too strong to dislodge. Not as strong as some Representatives, however. It really depends on what committees are most important to what states.