⇒ Only 21% of Senators are female (an all-time high) and there are only 83/435 female members of the house
⇒ Only 3 blacks in the Senate
⇒ Average age of a Senator is about 62
⇒ No one under 30 can become a member of Senate
⇒ Locality rule means that Congressmen must come from the district they represent
⇒ The creation of majority-minority districts boosted minorities in the house (currently 46 blacks)
⇒ Anyone over 25 can stand for election for the House of Representatives
⇒ Elections are held every 2 years for house of representatives. These elections are fixed - politicians cannot choose an opportune time so it constantly requires them to campaign for their constituents i.e. they’re in permanent voter appeasement mode
⇒ High frequency ensures the candidate who most pleases the people is always representing them
⇒ Composition of the Senate changes every 2 years
⇒ Each constituent has 3 members of Congress
⇒ Voters choose candidates in primaries, so candidates must therefore consider the views of loyal activists who vote in large numbers in these elections
⇒ Rise of the TEA party provides evidence of how responsive Congress can be to a change in mood (started in 2009 and by 2010 had won a significant number of race to become the most influential faction in the house)
⇒ Incumbency advantage means that few election are truly competitive (97% re-election rate)
⇒ Gerrymandering means that only 12/435 seats changed sides in 2016
⇒ Some Senators represent millions of voters, whilst others only represent a few hundred thousand
No
⇒ Only 2 independent members in the Senate (and they tend to vote Democrat) and none in the house of representatives so the Democrats and Republicans control 535/535 congressional seats
Yes
⇒ The two major parties represent a very broad range of ideas
⇒ Party discipline is weak in Congress - senators often feel free to vote how they wish
⇒ Many pressures on a member of Congress
⇒ Cost of campaigning means house members need interest group finance
⇒ Partisanship and party control over members of Congress seems to be increasing
⇒ Lack of independence. In 2013, 70% of votes were split along party lines
⇒ Most incumbents face little opposition, so they don't really need to care about their constituents
⇒ Members of Congress are expected to “bring back the bacon” (federal funds) to constituents
⇒ Marcy Kaptur secured federal funding to expand the Toledo Farmers market
⇒ Members of Congress have on average 30 members of staff answering constituents letters and drafting legislation
⇒ They have offices in their district/state and in Washington
⇒ Also see our notes on: