There are seven states that have fewer Representatives (that is, they have one) than Senators (all states have two): Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Delaware, Vermont, and North and South Dakota.
I’m from Indiana and hence don’t know what it’s like to be from such a state. In most states, the Senators are fairly well known but the Representatives usually aren’t (for good reason, they have longer terms and greater power). I was curious as to whether in the above seven states, however, the Representative was treated almost as a kind of third Senator, perhaps has even a higher profile than the two Senators.
Thanks for offering your insights. There is obviously a part to the answer that is your own opinion, but the factual side is how they are treated in the media, etc.
Growing up in South Dakota, the rep was on the same level as the two Senators, and the house seat holder would often move up to one of the Senate seats. They generally had state offices in the same cities, often relatively close to each other, and when I worked for Tom Daschle, the offices would work together on many things (more often with Tim Johnson’s office than John Thune’s office, of course).
There are 3 representatives in New Mexico, and I’d estimate that they get pretty equal news coverage with respect to the senators. Their name recognition is pretty equivalent, also, Tom Udall in northern NM, Steve Pearce in southern, and Heather Wilson in the Albuquerque area. The senators, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, average about 35 years apiece, while the representatives average less than ten. The argument could be made that the representatives are more “special” since they have roughly equivalent name recognition in a shorter time period.
FWIW, NM Tech just named its library after Joe Skeen, the former representative of southern New Mexico. I don’t recall any other buildings on campus named after any other political figures.
I’ve been in Montana for nearly a decade now. Both of our senators get a lot more press than our representative. I couldn’t even tell you our rep’s name, and I voted for her. I can, however, name both of our current senators, and the one who got voted out in 2006. I imagine that this is mostly due to the difference in term lengths.
Addendum: I just looked it up, and apparently I remember even less than I thought.
Yes and no–as others have described, at-large reps probably get more media attention and have higher name recognition than big-state reps. But Senator is still considered the more desirable office–at-large reps will often abandon their post to seek a Senate seat, but I’ve never heard of a Senator doing the reverse.
In fact, if anything, at-large reps are more prone to seek promotion to the Senate–you’re running a statewide campaign anyway, and have name recognition throughout the state, so why not? (Don Young, however, has never seen it that way.)
His estate may have; it was named after his death, IIRC. It may have been after he announced his retirement, though, since a quick Google search to verify dates (that I couldn’t find), because it turns out they renamed the NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) in honor of Dominici three months ago, who recently announced his retirement. I think bringing state and federal money to the university would happen in larger amounts than the average high level politician would give, though, giving a bigger incentive for the institution to name buildings after them.
I just included the factoid to show that, yes, representatives are recognized at a significant level.
Ordinarily the House member is not more powerful, being one of 435 rather than one of 100. Although if that person serves in a leadership capacity that can occur. On a local level, though, the seats can be a springboard to bigger and better things. Since the House member has to run a statewide campaign for office, their name recognition can be just as high.
In Delaware, politicians have moved around the seats. Rep. Castle was the Lt. Governor and Governor before getting term limited out. He ran for the House, while Rep. Carper swapped and ran for the Governor’s mansion. After Carper got term limited out, he won the Senate seat against Senator Roth, who was himself the at-large House member in the 1970s. Roth left the House to run for Senate and was succeeded by Pete DuPont who later became Governor.
The guys left out of this are Biden, who got in by defeating a Senator who was also a former Congressman and Governor and Thomas Evans who succeeded DuPont and was defeated by Carper.