POLS 206 1st Edition Lecture 10Outline of Current Lecture l. Congress:a. Senateb. House of RepresentativesI. Qualifications for CongressII. Senate SeatsIII. House SeatsIV. ApportionmentV. Equal RepresentationVI. Styles of RepresentationVII. Congressional ElectionsVIII.Congress Operation Current Lecture l. Congress:a. Senate- 6 year term; 100 Senators; 2 per stateb. House of Representatives- 2 year terms; 435 representatives, divided between states based on population (today, each member represents at least half million people)ll. Qualifications for Congress:a. Senate- must be a US citizen for at least 9 years, legal resident of the State, and at least 30 years old b. House of Representatives- must be a US citizen for at least 7 years, legal resident of the State, and at least 25 years oldlll. Senate Seats: There are 2 Senators from each state, each Senator is elected per state (they stand for all of the state), the senators cannot be re-elected at the same time (for example, in Texas Ted Cruz (elected 2012) is called Jr. Senator until John Cormin (called Sr. Senator) is out of office. There are 100 Senators: a. First Congress had 24 Senatorsb. 1800 there were 32 Senatorsc. 1900 there were 90 Senatorsd. 1959 there were 100 because Hawaii became a statelV. House Seatsa. Now- 435 seats (Texas has 32)b. It is not Constitutional, so the government decided on the numberc. There has to be at least one representative per stated. First Congress- 65 Representativese. 1929- 435 seatsV. Apportionmenta. Every 10 years, a census (electronically, by mail, or even by person) is made to account for population in each state, in order for Congress to divide the 435 seatsb. State Legislatures figure out the single-member geographical sections a representative will representc. There are qualifications for each district:i. equal representation (there are rules to district boundaries so each district has roughly the same populationii. contiguous boundaries (no little sections not connected)iii. the boundaries must be in a geographically dense area (so no Gerrymandering)iv.However, not all boundaries are contiguous and denseVl. Equal Representationa. Illegal representation:i. Malapportionment-essentially, one group has more influence than another groupii. Gerrymandering-purposeful drawing of boundaries in order to have a distinct supporter advantage b. Supreme Court mandated the one-person one-vote rule requiring districts to have equal number of people in eachc. Baker v. Carr (1962)- can State court hear this? the issue is supported by 14th Amendment d. Reynolds v. Sims (1964)- one person, one vote is mandatede. Westbury v. Sanders - looks at Baker v Carr ideas from legislature view and decides alldistricts are equal by populationf. In 1990’s, “Minority-Majority” districts (where minorities are the voting power) was tested for legality and found no. Though trying to make it more equal, this is really considered Gerrymandering.Vll. Representation Stylesa. Trustee- Does what’s best for the rest of the country (the Senate)b. Instructed Delegate- Does only what is good for the people (House people)c. Partisan- votes only on a political party’s opiniond. Politico (Maverick)- Combination of all three, they often break the norm. (John McCain was this)Vlll. Congressional Electionsa. Incumbency Advantage: Congress members get to mail letters for free, they have a budget which is specifically for Professional staff who know the business very very well, Access to the media (in order to promote them), Lawmaking power (power to make laws, especially for “their” people), and name recognition (people are going to want to vote for people they recognize)lX. Congress Operationa. Congress meets for two terms (right now, it is the 113th-First Session) and each term is placed into 1-year sessionsb. Up until 1940, Congress met about 4-5 months per session, but now Congress meets for about 9-10 months out of each yearc. The President can call Congress into a special session to deal with very specific issues butdoes normally does not prefer to because can upset Congress members, only 26 special sessions has ever been
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