CMC Congress Course

Monday, February 4, 2013

Congressional Elections I

Reelection Rates through 2010
Reelection rates in 2012
Senate coattails in 2012?
Redistricting: was 2012 a case of deliberate gerrymandering or unintentionial gerrymandering?
Contribution limits
The most Machiavellian ad of 2012
The second most Machiavellian ad of 2012

Intraparty Tensions

At The New York Times, Jennifer Steinhauer writes on the declining clubbiness of the Senate:

The willingness of Republicans to skewer one of their own became increasingly apparent on Friday as more and more members of the party peeled away from Mr. Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense, saying they would not vote to confirm him after Mr. Hagel melted like chocolate on a dashboard under combative questioning from Republicans.
...
There were other moments as well. Earlier in the week, Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, took to talk radio to refer to a Republican colleague, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, as “amazingly naïve” for his proposals to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. Mr. Rubio did not choose to respond or question the judgment of Mr. Vitter, whose phone number once appeared in a client list of a Washington madam.

As Politico reports, however, there was a response from somebody on Team Rubio:

Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) associates, furious about fellow Republican Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) calling the Floridian “nuts” and “naïve” over his immigration reform efforts, are hitting Vitter where it hurts.

“David Vitter has done some nuttier things in his life,” a source close to Rubio wrote in an unsolicited email to POLITICO.

That’s a not-at-all subtle reference to Vitter’s 2007 admission that his phone number appeared on a client list of a Washington, D.C. madam. A New Orleans-based prostitute and madam have also, separately, accused Vitter of being a client, but he has denied those charges.

Asked for comment about the jab, Vitter’s press secretary didn’t respond to two emails. A receptionist at Vitter’s Washington office said the press staffer “must be away from his desk.”

Meanwhile, Politico also reports that the president has long frustrated Hill Democrats:

President Barack Obama and his top advisers have declared that they’re done playing “the inside game” in Washington, but one crucial Democratic constituency — his former colleagues in Congress — say the president shouldn’t deep-six a strategy that he only half-heartedly tried in his first term.

As Obama prepares an aggressive public lobbying campaign for his ambitious second-term agenda, Democrats on Capitol Hill are bluntly warning him that he has to do more to engage them if he expects his congressional allies to take a series of politically tough votes.

Interviews with dozens of members of Congress and senior aides reveal frustration and in some cases exasperation that a president who came from the Senate has no apparent appetite for cultivating relationships on Capitol Hill.

These Democrats say they almost never hear from Obama personally, haven’t been to the White House since Rahm Emanuel was still chief of staff and are mystified that the president passed over a popular legislative affairs aide for the job as top congressional liaison. One high-profile Democrat who recently spoke to a group of Hill Democrats came away stunned at their anger toward a president they hardly know.

Friday, February 1, 2013

First Essay Assignment

Choose one:

Pick any House seat that changed party hands in 2012. Explain the outcome, with reference to candidates, the district’s characteristics, and the larger political climate. Is the same party likely to hold the seat in 2014?
Compare and contrast the “Hill styles” and “home styles” of two senators from any state. Explain the key similarities and differences.
Pick any of the four party leaders (Boehner, Pelosi, Reid, McConnell) and evaluate that leader’s performance in 2012. That is, what were the leader’s main political and policy goals for the year, and how well did the leader achieve them in light of the relevant resources and constraints?

Essays should reflect an understanding of class readings and discussions. Many resources, including CQ Weekly and Politics in America are at http://library.cqpress.com. Also go to the library and see The Almanac of American Politics. You should check other sources as well. See:

http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/elect.htm
http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/dempub.html
http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/congress.html

Essays should be typed, stapled, double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page.
Put your name on a cover sheet. Do not identify yourself on the text pages.
Cite your sources. You may use either endnotes or parenthetical references to a bibliography. In either case, put your documentation in a standard format (e.g., Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style).
Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you. Return essays by the start of class, Wednesday, February 13. Papers will drop one gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Two Chambers, Two Parties

Representation and a Representative: Judy Chu

A second look at Federalist 51:

But it is not possible to give to each department an equal power of self-defense. In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit. It may even be necessary to guard against dangerous encroachments by still further precautions.

Size
: