Government Chapter 8
what principle did the supreme court establish in wesberry vs sanders?
"one person, one vote"; aka the districts for state legislatures and the house of reps had to have equal populations; got rid of malapportionment
what a potential candidate needs
-commitment to public service/cause to believe in -financial assets (incumbents need to raise about $1.14 million for house seat) -experience
effects of majority-minority districts
-creates a district w/ enough minority citizens to elect one of their own -takes minority voters out of the pool of voters in other districts
how can members of congress be punished?
-explusion: removal from office of a rep or senator; requires 2/3 vote; 5 have been expelled from the house, 15 from senate; MOST SERIOUS PUNISHMENT -censure: formal vote of disapproval of a member's actions; requires majority vote
representation of blacks, hispanics, & women in congress (put in order most to least)
1. women 2. blacks 3. hispanics
how many senators face election every 2 years?
1/3; that's why it is a continuous body
"year of the woman"
1992; year after Anita Hill was before an all male Senate Judiciary Committee; female candidates were phenomenally successful; women increased representation in house by 2/3 & tripled representation in senate
how many senators are there per state?
2
what is the length of a house rep's term?
2 years
how many members are in the house?
435
what is the length of a member of senate's term?
6 years
About how many people are in each House district?
646,952
continuous body
a group in which a portion of the members retain their seats through each election
what is an "open seat"?
a race without an incumbent
what is a majority-minority district?
district where a minority (racial/ethnic wise) group usually constitutes the majority of voters and can control the outcome of elections
racial gerrymandering
drawing district lines to favor or harm an ethnic or racial group; only one allowed by supreme court
pro-incumbent gerrymandering
drawing district lines to keep a popular elected official in office
off-year elections
elections that fall between presidential election years
apportioned
house seats are distributed according to the populations of the states
reapportioned
house seats are redistributed among states as populations change with each 10 year census
what is the occupation of the majority of congressmen?
lawyer
partisan gerrymandering
most common; redrawing of district lines to help a party; what texas did in 2010 to give republicans more power
political action committees
organizations created to raise money for a particular interest group and make donations to candidates that will represent the group's interest
"packing"
putting all the members of one party into a district and then dividing the other party into all the other districts; example: put all democrats in 1 district & all republicans into other 4 districts so that republicans have more representatives than democrats
what greatly increased black representation in the 1990s?
racial gerrymandering
redistricting
redrawing districts to accommodate population changes and reapportionment
who is responsible for redrawing congressional districts?
state legislatures
"cracking"
taking some of the opposition party members out of the packed district & mixing them with the party members in the other 4 districts; example: dividing up Houston into multiple districts around it so that the democrats are put into a district that is overwhelmingly republican & all 5 districts become republican
coat tail effect
the ability of a strong presidential candidate to draw votes for other candidates
franking privileges
the benefit enjoyed by members of congress to send mail free to inform constituents about the lawmakers' activities
what role does the census play in redistricting congressional seats?
the census is the count of the population every 10 years and the reapportionment is based off of this new population data
incumbency advantage
the edge in visibility, experience, organization, and fund-raising ability possessed by incumbents
descriptive representation
the expectation that the legislature will mirror the demographics of those it represents
constituent
the group of citizens an official represents
terms
the lengths of time persons serve in office
incumbent
the person currently holding an office or position
midterm loss
the phenomenon of the striking regularity with which the presidential party loses seats in a midterm election
gerrymandering
the process of drawing district lines specifically to benefit one group or another
strategic politicians
those who act rationally and carefully in deciding when to run and what office to run for
malapportionment
unequal distribution of population among districts
