Congress: A Member's Perspective

This is highly relevant to our discussion of the two Congresses and more.

http://www.vox.com/2015/2/5/7978823/congress-secrets

Plus, the article ends on a hopeful note:

"Congress is still necessary to save America, and cynics aren't helping
Discouragement is for wimps.

We aren't going to change the Constitution, so we need to make the system we have work. We are still, despite our shortcomings, the most successful experiment in self-government in history. Our greatest strength is our ability to bounce back from mistakes like we are making today. Get over your nostalgia: Congress has never been more than a sausage factory. The point here isn't to make us something we're not. The point is to get us to make sausage again. But for that to happen, the people have to rise up and demand better."

Elections: Setting, Strategy, Tactics

• Outside spending
• An emerging Republican advantage?
• Demographics of the vote

Some ads

• Ads from the Crossroads groups
• Joni Ernst (R-IA)
• Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and local accents
• Kristi Noem (R-SD) and her grandmother
• Cory Garnder (R-CO) on his "nice guy" opponent
• Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and constituent service
• Monica Wehby (R-OR) -- great ad, bad candidate

Hill Style:  John McCain takes on his former friend in 2013:




Home Style:  John McCain and little old ladies in 1993:

Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit

Burgess Everett reports at Politico:

Senate Democrats are falling back in love with the filibuster.

After eight years of complaining about obstructionism, the Senate’s new Democratic minority is embracing some of the same tools Republicans had wielded so skillfully to jam the legislative machinery. On Tuesday, Democrats used the filibuster to stop a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security — and roll back President Barack Obama’s immigration policies — dead in its tracks.

Democrats’ relationship with the filibuster had been on the rocks when they ran the Senate, a time when the GOP regularly used the procedural weapon to disrupt the majority’s agenda. Democrats responded by gutting the filibuster on nominations, making “Republican obstruction” a go-to explanation for the Senate’s gridlock and complaining bitterly when the GOP minority blocked debate from even opening on bills.

Then came Tuesday’s 51-48 vote blocking the DHS bill. This was the first time a Democratic minority had blocked a bill from coming to the floor for debate since Aug. 3, 2006, when Democrats stifled legislation that would have raised the minimum wage and decreased the estate tax.

Casual Senate watchers could be forgiven for thinking that Democrats and Republicans had simply exchanged talking points after the 2014 election. Now in the majority, Republicans are the ones accusing the minority of keeping the Senate from getting things done.

You heard it here first:  the parties have flipped before. 

 

Something You Probably Didn't Know About Mitch McConnell

Today Mitch McConnell called himself a "big fan of vaccinations."

Why?

Congressional Record, April 12, 2005

I was struck with polio when I was 2 years old. My dad was overseas fighting in World War II. Polio was similar to having the flu--you felt sick all over. Except when polio  went away there were residual effects. In my case, when my flu-like symptoms went away, I had a quadricep in my left leg that was dramatically affected.

My mother was, of course, like many mothers of young polio victims, perplexed about what to do, anxious about whether I would be disabled for the rest of my life. But we were fortunate. While my dad was overseas my mother was living with her sister in east central Alabama, only about 40 or 50 miles from Warm Springs. As everyone knows, President Roosevelt established Warm Springs, where he went to engage in his own physical therapy, as a center to treat other polio victims. So my mother was able to put me in the car, go over to Warm Springs, and actually learn, from those marvelous physical therapists who were there, what to do.

They told my mother she needed to keep me from walking. Now, imagine this. You are the mother of a 2-year-old boy. And we all know how anxious little boys are to get up and get around and get into trouble. So my mother convinced me that I could walk, but I couldn't walk--a pretty subtle concept to try to convey to a 2-year-old. In other words, she wanted me to think I could walk, but she wanted me to also understand I should not walk. Now, obviously, the only way to enforce that with a 2-year-old is to watch them like a hawk all the time. So I was under intense observation by my mother for 2 years. She administered this physical therapy regiment at least three times a day--all of this really before my recollection. But we now know the things that happened to us in the first 5 years of our lives have an enormous impact on us for the rest of our lives.

So this example of incredible discipline that she was teaching me during this period I always felt had an impact on the rest of my life in terms of whatever discipline I may have been able to bring to bear on things I have been involved in. I really have felt my mother taught me that before I was even old enough to remember.

So this went on for 2 years. My first memory in life was stopping at a shoe store in LaGrange, GA. We had left Warm Springs for the last time, and the physical therapist there had told my mother: Your son can walk now. We think he is going to have a normal childhood and a normal life. We stopped at a shoe store in LaGrange, GA, and bought a pair of saddle oxfords, which are low-top shoes--my first recollection in life.

Followup to Our Discussion of Recruitment

Joe Mathews writes at Fox and Hounds:

There is a new form of punishment for those who dared to chair the California Republican Party: you have to run for offices that you know you can’t win.

This take-one-for-the-team reality has become a trend. Former party chair Ron Nehring made a no-hope run for lieutenant governor last year (and wrote some interesting emails I enjoyed reading). Now former chair Tom Del Beccaro appears to be getting closer to running for a U.S. Senate seat that is all but certain to stay in Democratic hands.

Why do they do this? The answer seems to be less about ambition – since winning the office isn’t possible – and more about duty. Nehring said he was running because he believes the party should field candidates for every post, and because competition is the essence of democracy.

Del Beccaro, in a recent email, said he was looking at the Senate race “because I want our side to be heard.” He added: “Over the next 4 years, there will likely be 2 US Senate seats and the Governor’s office in play. If ever we are going to engage with California voters, the next four years will be the time.”

These runs indicate desperation. Party chairs have to recruit candidates, and recruitment must be hard, especially for statewide offices and for legislative offices in more Democratic regions of the state. So what’s the honorable thing to do when you can’t find a candidate? Become a candidate yourself.

Congressional Elections: The Basics

Incumbents Usually Win 

Victory Margins
Coattails 

Midterms Are Bad for the President's Party

The Senate

• The Class System
• The Exposure of the Class of 2014 and the results
• Senate coattails in 2012?
• Seats and Votes in the Senate

The House

• Gerrymandering: cracking, packing, merging, isolating
• Unintentionial gerrymandering
• GOP Advantage in Non-Minority Districts

Contribution limits

The most Machiavellian ad of 2012

The second most Machiavellian ad of 2012

First Assignment, Spring 2015

Pick one:

• Compare and contrast the “Hill styles” and “home styles” of two senators from any state. Explain the key similarities and differences. 
• Pick one of the following party leaders: Reid, McConnell, or Pelosi. Evaluate that leader’s performance in 2014. 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? 
• Pick any House seat that changed party hands in 2014. 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 2016? 

Essays should reflect an understanding of class readings and discussions. Many resources, including CQ Weekly and Politics in America are at Honnold Library/Databases/CQ Library. see The Almanac of American Politics either in hardcopy at Honnold or via the library website. Consult other sources as well. See: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/congress.html

The specifications:

• Essays should be typed (12-point), double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page. 
• Cite your sources. Please use endnotes in the format of Chicago Manual of Style.  Endnotes do not count against the page limit. Please do not use footnotes, which take up too much page space.
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you. Return essays to the Sakai dropbox for this class by 11:59 PM, Thursday, February 12. Papers will drop one gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.