1.

CONGRESS AS A CAREER: ELECTION TO CONGRESS

1. Using Incumbency
I. Incumbents (officeholders)
ii.The Service Strategy: Taking Care of Constituents
Constituency: the people who live in the incumbents state or district
Pork-barrel spending: Member of Congress share of federal spending
projects
Service strategy: Incumbents responded to their constituents individual
requests
Congressional staffers spend most of their time on constituency service
and public relations for the election day.
Each House member receives an office allowance of 800000 USD per
year to hire no more than eighteen permanent staff members
i.Smaller states senators: hire around 30 people
ii.Larger state senators: around 50 people
1. Frank: mailings that make the members of congress become more
famous and gain support ( an advantage in their reelection campaigns)

2. Campaign Fundraising: Raking in the Money

i.Price to run for a Senate seat: several millions to 20 million dollars
ii.Incumbents have the advantage of raising sufficient money, while
challengers have difficulty to fundraise
iii.
iv.Open-seat election: A race that does not have an incumbent
i.Often involve strong candidate from each party and heavy spending
1. Redistricting: Favorable Boundaries for House Incumbents
i.Reapportionment: Every ten years, the 435 seats in HOR must be rearranged in proportion to their population
ii.States are required by law to make their House districts as nearly equal in
population as possible
iii.Redistricting: redrawing House election districts
iv.Gerrymandering: Party in power draws the boundaries in a way that favors
candidates of its party
v.Majority party in the state legislature places sufficient parts supporters in its
incumbents districts to ensure their reelections
1. Pitfalls of Incumbency
i.Disruptive Issues
i.Incumbents are in trouble if the voters are dissatisfied with the existing
political conditions
ii.1/4 of House incumbents who lost their bid for reelection were shadowed
with ethical questions
ii.Turnout Variation: The Midterm Election Problem
i.The electorate in a presidential election is larger than the midterm electorate
ii.Presidents lose popularity after taking office as a result of tough policy
choices or when new problems emerge.
iii.As the presidents support declines, so does voters inclination to support
congressional candidates from the presidents party.
iii.Primary Election Challengers
i.Polarization between parties has made primary elections a riskier for
incumbents with moderate views
ii.If these incumbents betryade their party on key congressional votes, they
will be antagonized with a strong challenger that is backed by the party
iv.General Election Challengers: A Problem for Senators
i.Senate attracts stronger challengers
1. Maria Cantwell spent 10 million of her own money to defeat Senator
Slade Gorton in the state of Washingtons Senate race in 2000
ii.A House seat is not attractive to the local politicians
1. The House faces weak opponents

2. Safe Incumbency and Representation

i.Incumbents tend to hold stable policy positions, and congress does not
change its policy direction too much from one election to the next.
ii.National legislators in other countries do not have many personal staffs or
travel and publicity budgets
1. Who Are the Winners in Congressional Elections
i.House: 25 years old, must be a citizen for 7 years
ii.Senators: 30 years old, must be a citizen for 9 years
iii.Lawyers constitute less than 1 percent of the population, yet make up 1/3 of
Congress
iv.Members of Congress are male and white dominant.
v.Women and minority in congress occupy few seats
vi.Women and minority candidates have made greater inroads
iii.Parties And Part Leadership
1. Party leaders: individuals who will lead their partys efforts in the
chamber.
2. Party caucus: closed session that plans strategy, develop issues, and
resolve policy differences
3. Party unity: members of a party band together on legislation and stand
against the opposite party
4. Roll-call votes: votes that are officially recorded
5. Voice votes: members say either aye or nay
6. Speaker:
i.A very important role
ii.Persuade party members in the House to support bills
1. Formal powers:
1. Right to speak first during House debate on legislations and
power to recognize members
2. Chooses chairperson and the majority-party members of the
House Rules Committee

3. Ask the Rules Committee to delay sending a bill to the floor until
there is sufficient support for its passage
4. Assigns bill to committees and places time limits on the
reporting of bills out of committees
5. Assigns members to conference committees
6. Has a whip to assist the speaker
iv.Senate Leader:
i.Formulates the majority partys legislative agenda
ii.Encourages party members to support the agenda
1. Committees And Committee leadership
i.Standing committees: permanent committees with responsibility for particular
areas of public policy
ii.Standing committees have subcommittees and they have defined
jurisdiction
1. Congress could not manage its workload without the help of its
committee system
2. Congress has joint committees that are composed of members of both
houses, which perform advisory functions
3. The 1946 Legislative Reorganization Act requires that each bill
introduced in Congress be assigned to the proper committee
4. Jurisdiction: with the authorized power to act
5. Committee chairs are always members of the majority party and
usually the party member with the most seniority
6. Seniority: consecutive years of service on the committee, judged based
the amount of time served on a committee as opposed to in Congress
i. Advantages of seniority system:
i.reduces the number of power struggles in open competition
ii.committee leadership can be handled properly
iii.enables members to look forward to the reward of a position as chair
ii.Committees have been called little legislatures to secuire in its jurisdiction

and membership
iii.Ranking members: minority partys committee and subcommittee leaders
1. How A Bill Becomes Law
i.A bill is a proposed legislative act
ii.Most bills are thrown out in committees
iii.From Committee to the Floor
i.Rules Committee has the power to determine when the bill be voted on and
how long the debate it will last
ii.Close rule: no amendments
iii.Open rule: accept amendment that are related to any of the bills sections
iv.All Senate bills have unlimited debate unless a 3/4 majority vote for cloture
(limits the debate time to 30 hr)
i.Prevention of filibuster ( a procedural tactic to discuss until the bill is
withdrawn)
v.Riders: In the Senate, members can propose any amendment to any bill.
vi.A conference committee is formed temporarily to handle the bill
vii.If president signs the bill, the bill becomes a law
viii.Veto -> go back the Congress/ pocket veto: the president does not sign a
bill within ten days
ix.
iv.The Presentation Function of Congress
1. Whether a representative should respond to the interests of the nation
or those of the constituency
2. Logrolling: the practice of trading ones vote with another member (winwin situation)
v.Members of Congress agree on the need for national action, but disagree on
how to solve the problem
vi.Polarization continues between Democratic and Republican parties
1. Many voters can differentiate one another now
vii.Oversight function: executive branch carries out the laws faithfully
1. Oversight does not carried out often, but would do so if
i.Members of Congress are pissed off at an agency
ii.Discovered that a legislative authorization is being abused
iii.Intend to modify an agency program
1. Executive branch, except executive privilege ( for the purpose of
national security), has to testify

viii.Framers did not realize how members of Congress are closely associated
with special interests
Senate

House