Legislative Branch: 3rd Set of Notes

Congressional incumbency

What is an incumbent?

Incumbency

19th Century

A large fraction, often a majority of representatives and senators, serve only one term.

It was NOT regarded as a career.

1950s -

It had become a career. From 1863 to 1969 the proportion of first “termers” in the House fell from 58% to 8%.

Are they out of touch with the people?

90% of House members are incumbents

Marginal Districts

Political districts in which candidates elected to the House win in close elections. Less than 55% of the vote.

Does a marginal district make it easier or harder for the incumbent?

Safe Districts

Districts in which candidates win by margins of 55% or more.

Would incumbents rather live in a safe district or a marginal district?

What about someone running against an incumbent?

Lets take a look

NOW - people are more likely to vote for the person, not the party, but people are more likely to have heard of incumbents.

Are you guys more likely to vote for the person than the party? How do incumbents play into your decisions? Do they?

Why do incumbents have such a good chance?

Better Known

Easier to raise funds

Can use staff to do constituent service (and franking privilege)

Serve on committees that help constituents

Do members represent their voters?

What do you think? Do they care about their constituents? Their party? Their conscience? A mix of these?

Congress-people can influence legislation in many other ways than voting.

What are some examples?

Hearings, mark up bills, offer amendments, media outlets

Representational View/Delegate

Based on the reasonable assumption that members want to get reelected and therefore they vote to please their constituents

What are the problems with this?

If there is not a strong or clear opinion then they can risk defeat if they vote against some constituents.

Organizational View/Partisan

Most constituents do not know how their legislator voted, so it is not essential to please them but it is important to please fellow members of Congress

Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours

Principle Cue is Party - VERY PARTISAN

Attitudinal View/ Trustee

There are so many pressures that they cancel one another out, leaving them virtually free to vote on the basis of their own beliefs

More consistently conservative or liberal

Senators are usually less in tune with public than representatives

Any Mix of these/ Politico

Balances the trustee, delegate, and partisan

What is the one most important indicator of how they will vote?

PARTY

Trustee -

decided on its merits

Delegate

Decided based on constituents, agents of who elects them

Partisan

Owe allegiance to the party

Politico

Attempt to combine the basic elements of the others

To Review

What would you rather have representing you in Congress, a delegate, trustee, partisan, or politico. WHY? Defend your answer.

Party Unity and Congressional

Caucuses

How do we measure party

unity?

Party PolarizationParty Polarization:

A vote in which a majority of Democratic legislators oppose a majority of Republican legislators.

What would be an example of a bill subject that could cause this?

Party UnitySenate Numbers (as of right now...to change in January)

49-49 but the 2 Independents caucus with Democrats (Dems think it is 51-49)

House Numbers

Dem - 233

Repub-202

Party Unity

Another measure

Cohesion of the parties on votes that elicit a party split

If deeply divided, then we know their party unity is low

Bi-Modal Voting

When all Democrats vote one way and all Republicans vote the other

Example of Bimodal Voting

Clinton Impeachment

98% of House Republicans voted for at least 1 impeachment article

98% of House Democrats voted against all 4

So, does political party make a difference?

Enough of a difference that party affiliation is the most important thing to know about a member of Congress

Congressional Caucuses

Do not get this confused with electoral caucuses. These relate to members IN congress.

They are an association of congressional members (senators and representatives) created to advance a political ideology or regional, ethnic, or economic interest.

So, its sort of like a club for like-minded congressmen and women

Coalitions

Study groups

Task forces

Working Groups

Intra-party caucuses

between members of the same party

ex. House Democratic Caucus, House Republican Caucus

Personal Interest Caucuses

Art

Congressional Family

Human Rights

Population and Development

Constituency Concerns, National

Black Caucus

Women’s issues

Vietnam Veterans

Constituency Concerns, Regional

Sunbelt

Western

TVA

Constituency Concerns, by State

MA caucus

VA caucus

Constituency Concerns, Industry

Steel

Textile

Boating

Why join a caucus?

To pursue common legislative goals

Review for Quiz

next class: 7 short answers

Describe the three reasons we have a bicameral legislature.

What are three reasons why incumbent rates are so high in the House?

Define the theory of descriptive representation.

Discussed what happened in the court case Shaw v Reno

What is a filibuster and how can it be stopped

Describe the 4 ways members of Congress can vote/represent their voters?

Why would a congressman or woman want to join a caucus?