Chapter 9 Notes Legislating Policy and Representing the People Founding fathers thought the legislative branch should be the preeminent Wanted power to the people indirect democracy LEGISLATURE Legislative Branch Statutory Law o Create them everyday make laws about marijuana guns ect Constitutional Laws o Laws already in the constitution Amend state constitutions o States with long constitutions have more amendments When the constitution was created society was different Have to make amendments for today s society o Joint resolution Senate and house vote on the same bill and when it is passed the people vote yes or no to pass it Two step process house senate then people vote to pass Constituent service o When you have problems your legislators within your district are the ones who help you when you have social security issues ect Help because they want your vote Bring government funding to the district o Important because the funding will create jobs o Funding to bring highway build universities which will create jobs and therefore will get legislators elected o State legislators don t have the same job security as Congress but they still have a strong chance of being re elected No longer there because they wanted to move to a higher office Move from state to Congress Congress has high job security Texas has 70 job security State legislatures are not as strong but still strong Representation Geographic o Represented by where you live o District precinct you have to vote for a certain candidate based on where you live unless it s a state office like governor lieutenant governor Heterogenous districts Where people are diverse and different Diversity is based on economic occupation of the people living there and not just races LEGISLATURE Non Geographic Based on ethnicity economic activity Professional workers and blue collar workers Homogenous Majority of the people living in the district are the same Easier to represent because the interests are the same Same in terms of ethnicity or economic activities o Alternative to geographic representation o Argument that more people don t care about where they live because the issues concerning us on a day to day basis that the local government will take care of it already sewage education ect Why limit yourself and be represented by a senate member by district if your local government takes care of your issues o Entrepreneurial o Random Selection District is represented by how you work Some people claim that we are just as good as having random selection Many people don t run for office because of campaign running Computer picks a random person based on certain costs qualifications When the system is about money the people who can afford to run will run selection bias Legislative Apportionment Must have a census every 10 years which is used for congressional apportionment and state apportionment Want representative to have the same amount of population Equal Population o Reynolds v Sims legislators represent people not trees or acres o Equal number of people in the district Base Population o Divide by population Range 1 o Plus or minus 1 of the people you represent In reality trying to draw a district plus or minus 1 is very difficult Redistricting After the census you have to draw up the geography of the districts State legislatures create districts for themselves and the U S house o When a party is in power they can draw up the districts so that they remain in power o Safe for state legislators and for Congress o People calling themselves Democrats are larger in number and Republicans are still in power because of gerrymandering LEGISLATURE o Historically many places in the south used to gerrymander based on race and in order to favor rural areas Why many legislators were actually farmers Created policies based on their own interests Race and ethnicity o Voting Rights Act 1965 Lyndon B Johnson We are not allowed to gerrymander based on race because of this act Removed voting suppression rules in the states white primaries literacy tests ect Prior to this act you hardly saw minority representation in government because of the gerrymandering o Fracturing Breaking up districts where the majority of the people are a minority Broken up so their numbers are smaller so they can t elect a representative of their ethnicity Once you get rid of this ethnicities in power rise o Packing or concentrating Combining ethnic majorities from different districts into one big district so you wind up with one elected official of a minority versus three Packing all minorities into a super district Partisan gerrymandering o Still legal today since the Voting Rights Act did not make it illegal to gerrymander by partisanship o Gerrymandering is based off of party ID o States must be in control of state legislator and they get to be in control of Congress which is why Congress will be in Republican control for a long time One Person One Vote Impossible to achieve where the power of the vote is equal Different districts have different numbers of children non registered citizens o Lots of children in the first district who can t vote but 200 registered o Power of the Vote for the second district is high because there are 100 o Need 31 votes to win in the third district the percentage is higher out adults citizens registered of 1 200 1 100 Legislative Districting 1000 Registered Voters Republicans 40 Democrats 60 LEGISLATURE Supreme Court says partisan gerrymandering is OK Top Districting Method Winners 3 Dems 2 Reps Democrats want a dominance of democrats and 5 democrats Before the elections in 2014 knew that the Republicans were going to win looking at the gerrymandering to advantage the Republican party We have more democrats in the country but more Republicans in party Separate ideology from partisanship I think More democrats in the country than Republicans Districting Requirements Contiguity o Districts must touch each other o 500 mile district from El Paso to Austin Population Equality o Equality is or 1 Voting Rights Act o Impact Does it stop minorities from getting elected Then you can t do it if it does o Shape Districts must more or less be compact Something wrong if the districts are long and spiraly Shape must look compact Partisan Gerrymandering o Supreme Court says its OK o Difficult to separate partisan gerrymandering from racial gerrymandering Competition Unopposed o There forever No one will challenge them during the primaries In Congress their
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