1. Chapter 11
Lawmakers & Legislatures

2. ????
Main goal of a lawmaker?????

3. Main goal To keep their job Always thinking about staying in office
Continual re-election

4. You must be….. Elect-able Be able to raise $$ Play political games
Bring projects back to your home state

5. Constituents
A person who lives in an electoral district and is represented by an elected official

6. connection Lawmakers serve a group of people House = home district
Senate = state

7. qualifications “C” establishes
Both “H” & “S” must live in the state from which they are elected
“H” = 25
“S” = 30
“H” = citizen 7 years
“S” = citizen 9 years

8. That’s all
Do you think there should be more qualifications??

9. Informal qualifications
Characteristics that people look for in elected officials
What do you think?
Come up with 5 at your table

10. traditionally
White
male
middle to upper class

11. 1960-1970’s Women and minority candidates challenged this tradition
Late 1960’s = 200 women
2012 = 1840 women
At both the state and national level

12. Minorities
African Americans
Latinos
2011 = 68
2016 = 19%

13. Other….
Informal qualifications…
Education
Occupation

14. Education
Most members of Congress have a college degree and many have advanced degrees
Majority = Law or Business

15. Occupation Lawyers CEO Scientists Teachers Doctors Farmers Writers
Bankers
Comedians
Actors

16. Apportionment Equal Representation
Senate = 100 seats (2 from each state)
House = 435 seats (each seat represents one congressional district)

17. Number of Seats Fixed by Congress in 1911
Can be changed by Congress at any time

18. House Seats are apportioned OR
Divided among the states according to each state’s population
MI has 14 districts or seats

19. How to get that # Every 10 years the government takes a census OR
A count of the nation’s population

20. And……..
That number is used to calculate how the House seats should be distributed among the states
More population = more seats
Less = less

21. But…
Each state is guaranteed at least one seat ND SD WY MT AK

22. Page 198 After the 2010 census…… Which states gain a seat?
Which states lost a seat?
More than one????

23. Idea Equal representation “One person one vote”
Each district should have the same amount of people

24. As of 2010 census
House average 710,700 per district

25. Senate States are equal Each state gets 2 senators
Each state has same weight even with different populations
WY = (500,000 people)
CA = (37 million people)

26. Job of Legislator
2 roles
Delegate
Trustee

27. Delegate Represent their district as the people wish
Respond directly to what the people want

28. Trustee Represent their district with independent judgment
Serve the needs of the district with larger interests. They are trusted to do the right thing

29. Many
Combine the 2 roles
Depends on the issue

30. Getting elected
Once elected…..can stay as long as they keep getting re-elected
No term limits in Congress
(Yes….term limits in the State House)

31. Meaning 80% of incumbent senators have won re-election Why?
Do they have an advantage?
YES

32. Name recognition They are familiar with voters News
Trusted by voters to be effective

33. Office resources Staff Travel allowances
They can easily keep in touch with their home district or state

34. Campaign funds Incumbents tend to get more doantions than challengers
2012
$971 million vs $398 million

35. Bragging rights
They can point to projects that they have accomplished in office
Especially ones in their state
Roads
contracts

36. PORK
Called PORK because the $$ for these projects comes from the federal “pork barrel” or treasury
These officials “bring home the bacon”

37. Challenger Does not have this opportunity BUT…..
No guarantee that the incumbent will win

38. Meaning
If Congress hasn’t done a good job or has failed with major issues………votes may vote the incumbents out of office during the next election

39. Check Number of total Senate seats? Number of total House seats?
How many senators from each state?
How is the number of House Representitives determined?