Sunday, March 18, 2012

What is the most interesting thing you know about electing people to Congress?

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/the-anti-incumbent-election-myth/

28 comments:

jblommel said...

The most interesting thing I know about electing people to Congress is that the Senate used to not be chosen by popular election. The state legislature would choose Senators. I find this interesting because it seems that that is not as "democratic" as the Framers claimed. I would think that a government of the people and for the poeple would be chosen BY the people, not by leaders of the people.

Jegan said...

The most interesting thing that i know about electing people into Congress is that during some elections Congress people run uncontested in their districts because no one feels that they could win in that district.

jboyle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
J.Mason said...

For me its not a question of what is the most interesting, but a question of why we elect the people we do. Have you ever heard of people complain about the laws that we have? Those laws are about of congress and in my opinion we truely have no control over who gets elected into congress

Jwolf said...

The most interesting thing I know about electing people to Congress is that most people are on one side of the political spectrum; however, congress members are more likely to be. That means that people pick the person that has stronger beliefs than themselves.

bhlava said...

I wouldn't exactly call anything i know about people being elected to congress interesting. the closest i could get to interesting would be that it is easier to get elected to the House because when running for the Senate, one needs to be elected by the entire state, whereas when running for the House of Representatives one only needs to win over a comparitvely smaller district

JakobL said...

The most interesting thing Iknow about Congress that over 90% of the Congressmen in the House get reelected. One of the reasons for that is that their term is only two years long and they always want to get reelected and therefore they do what the people want. That means they are less likely to flip-flop on given issues.

Chris DeWinter said...

The most interesting thing I know about electing people to Congress is that congress approval rating is at 11% but in most elections the incumbent congress men wins reelection. Members of the house of representative have a 98% reelection rate and Senators have a 90% reelection rate.

neve57 said...

The most interesting fact I know about Congress is that Ohio is listed the 17th state in the US, but it is technically the 47th. Until the date August 7th, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the union. FAILLLLLL!!!

tFugarino said...

The most interesting thing i know abou electing people to congress is the senate used to be chosen by a popular vote.

Big Al said...

The most interesting thing that I know about electing people to congress is the lack of knowledge in what the voters are voting for. In the book, "how congresss works" it said that 73% of people do not know what the most important thing that congress did the year before. The states enjoy their congress members and vote them in even though they dislike national congress. I think that the people are satisfied with their own state means that congress is doing their job well.They just they dislike congress, because they are unsure.

sli said...

The most interesting thing is that every candidates who wants to run for the congress has to run primary election first so parties has little control over electoral process.

aspone said...

The most interesting thing I know about elevting people to Congress is that even though there is usually a low approval rate of Congress, most congressmen and congresswomen are reelected.

skerns said...

The most interesting thing i know about electing people to Congress is that in order to be elected you have to have lived in the state for seven years. Why seven? seems random

ANichols said...

In my opinion, the most intresting part about Congress is the democracy that plays a role in the election process. When Congress first came about, most of the people "on the board" were white-males. However, in today's day and age there is a good mix of sex and race in the people who are elected to Congress. This is important because then the congressmen and congresswomen are able to discuss different topics and issues that they have and express different opinions. Rather than always having everyone agree on one topic, by having a diverse group of people everyone is able to express their own opinon and make it have an effect on policy making. The different people that come and go from Congress is the most intresting to me!

Sfrasher said...

I think the most interesting thing about electing people to Congress is that there has never been a true anti incumbent election in recent history. I think this is pretty intruiging because Congress has held a fair share of elections in the past decade or so, and to not have a true anti incumbent election is pretty surprising.

THaase said...

The most interesting this about electing people to congress is that we tend to disapprove of the work of congress as a whole but we tend to re-elect the people who we disapprove of. It's just mind boggling how we contradict ourselves with our logic.

Anonymous said...

The most interesting thing about elections to Congress for me is the number of incumbents being re-elected. I think that the incumbency re-election rate is almost too high (obviously dependent on the job they are doing). It amazes me that we are still able to elect new members to Congress with the high incumbency retention rate.

Anonymous said...

The most interesting thing I have learned about electing people in Congress is that in most "open" elections, when there is not an incumbent running, there is a slight advantage to minority and female congressmen/women that are being elected over the typical middle aged, rich, white male.

Paige said...

It's surprising that only 13% approve of Congress' actions, yet we continue to vote them in. Since we have the power to choose, I'd think that we would pick better people.

KKotecki said...

The most interesting thing for me is that only 20 percent of Americans think that most members of Congress should be reelected, yet the people who don't think that vote for the same congressional incumbents, who make up the Congress that they disapprove of. Many times they are tricked into voting for incumbents by the incumbents running for Congress by running against Congress. It seems quite contradictory to me.

Andrew Salo said...

The most interesting thing that I have learned about congress is the huge debate on whether or not there should be term limits. Some people believe that if a person keeps getting re-elected to office than they have earned the right to be there. Others take the other side, thinking that people will become coroupt and have too much power if they are in office for too long.

THaase said...

the most interesting thing i know about being elected to congress is the large amounts of money needed to win. typically the person who spends the most wins that election. it is true that money talks

Haley S said...

The concept of “Wave elections” with respect to the election of people into congress is very interesting. A “Wave” election is one in which one party makes substantial gains in the House and Senate. A large number of incumbents lose their positions, and the majority of these defeated incumbents come from one party. This can help us explain why incumbents lose.

Anne L. said...

What I find most interesting about electing people to Congress is that incumbents have a huge advantage of being reelected. Although, at an average 95% for House incumbents and 80% for Senate incumbents, the reelection rates are a bit higher than the public's opinion of 20%.

Unknown said...

The most interesting thing I know about electing people to Congress is that it is not too rare for an independent to win a seat. For example, two independents were elected into Congress this week. Also the fact that these independents will caucus with one of the parties because otherwise they will not be able to do as much as party members in Congress.

Unknown said...

Although there is normally a low rate of approval, most congressmen and women are reelected.

PatrickW said...

The most intresting thing about congressional elections is the huge amounts outside money that is spent.