Congress mulls elections to fill Senate vacancies
Lawmakers debate changing Constitution so voters can pick replacements
I find it interesting every time a serious attempt at changing the constitution is at hand.
This article discusses the idea of changing the constitution to allow voters to choose who will fill the seats in the senate instead of state governors.
"Appointments by governors, said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., "are an unfortunate relic" of the first century of the nation's history when senators were picked by state legislatures. Feingold, a chief sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment requiring elections to fill vacancies, spoke at a joint House-Senate hearing on the proposal. "
Considering the most recent issue with Blagojavich, this could be the answer to a lot of the corruption in the process. They would have to bribe the voter intead
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Exit Polls: Wisconsin
Exit polls act as fairly consistent methods of predicting elections and breaking down the different characteristics that may play a role in why the population votes the way they do. I decided to look at the exit poll results for the 2008 general election in Wisconsin. More Specifically I wanted to find how early the voters had their mind set on a candidate and what other relationship might explain this.
The Majority of people know who they are going to vote for long before the election itself. The exit polls on cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=WIP00p1) ask when the voters knew when they were going to vote for the candidate they voted for. The bulk of voters said that they knew months before the election. 60% of Wisconsin voters knew which Presidential candidate they would vote for prior to September 2008. This most likely coincides with the results showing that 95% of Democrats voted in alignment with their party Identification and 89% Percent of Republicans voted along side theirs.
It makes sense that if people are voting in alignment with their usual party identification, that their decision of a candidate would be known months prior to the election. 15% of people did not vote in accordance with their party ID and 11% of voters did not know who they were going to vote for until less than a week prior to the election. It might be interesting to draw a comparison of these results. It may have been those struggling with voting opposite their typical party loyalty, that suffered the most indecision before the election.
The Majority of people know who they are going to vote for long before the election itself. The exit polls on cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=WIP00p1) ask when the voters knew when they were going to vote for the candidate they voted for. The bulk of voters said that they knew months before the election. 60% of Wisconsin voters knew which Presidential candidate they would vote for prior to September 2008. This most likely coincides with the results showing that 95% of Democrats voted in alignment with their party Identification and 89% Percent of Republicans voted along side theirs.
It makes sense that if people are voting in alignment with their usual party identification, that their decision of a candidate would be known months prior to the election. 15% of people did not vote in accordance with their party ID and 11% of voters did not know who they were going to vote for until less than a week prior to the election. It might be interesting to draw a comparison of these results. It may have been those struggling with voting opposite their typical party loyalty, that suffered the most indecision before the election.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
House GOP Plead with Dems
I thought this link fit well with this weeks blog. House GOPs plead with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer Monday to put a freeze on using the remainder of the fiscal year's unspent budget with an exception of the "non-negotiables," funding cuts for troops and tax increases.
Module 5: Minority Party
In a democracy the role of the Minority Party is to aid in “mobilization congressional majorities and in shaping public policy” (Heatherington and Keefe, 175). In the most recent past presidencies when congress had a less divided majority, it seemed as though the main responsibility of the Minority party job was to take a stand against the majority’s legislation and administrative programs. With new Democrats having such a strong role in congress this presidency, policy advocacy on the Republican front appears to be pointless. So why do the 214 Republicans still show up to work?
While the Democrats hold the majority and can produce legislation without the support of the Republicans, the Republicans are still representatives. They represent the views of a good chunk of the population. Though it is important for compromise and bipartisanship to accomplish goals in congress, it is also the responsibility of the representatives to represent those that put them into office.
In addition to the responsibility to the people, the power of persuasion is still very much important. Congressional Democrats fall on different positions on the ideological spectrum. Many moderate Democrats may side with less conservative Republicans and this alone provides incentive for Republicans to state their views and oppositions. Democrats need to adhere to a system of checks-and-balances and without opposition, this would be very difficult.
Another reason the Republicans may be motivated to show up for work in congress is that if they have a successful opposition to the Democrats, meaning a plan the Democrats with through with fails, they have the ability to finger-point. A failure in any realm is negative for the country, but positive for the opposition party that wants to regain a majority.
While the Democrats hold the majority and can produce legislation without the support of the Republicans, the Republicans are still representatives. They represent the views of a good chunk of the population. Though it is important for compromise and bipartisanship to accomplish goals in congress, it is also the responsibility of the representatives to represent those that put them into office.
In addition to the responsibility to the people, the power of persuasion is still very much important. Congressional Democrats fall on different positions on the ideological spectrum. Many moderate Democrats may side with less conservative Republicans and this alone provides incentive for Republicans to state their views and oppositions. Democrats need to adhere to a system of checks-and-balances and without opposition, this would be very difficult.
Another reason the Republicans may be motivated to show up for work in congress is that if they have a successful opposition to the Democrats, meaning a plan the Democrats with through with fails, they have the ability to finger-point. A failure in any realm is negative for the country, but positive for the opposition party that wants to regain a majority.
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