I’m pretty much completely ignorant of local politics. I remember learning in high school that Arizona, my state of residence, has 8 representatives. Well, I just now learned that back in 2010 we went from 8 to 9. In your face, whoever lost one to us!
So I decided to keep fighting my own ignorance and look up my representative. Some old guy (I wasn’t exactly surprised) named Ed Pastor. This old guy apparently supports Planned Parenthood “100%”, is pro-animal rights and voted against a same-sex marriage ban all the way back in 2004! All right! Sure, he supposedly “encouraged” the display of “In God We Trust” on public buildings, but hey, we can’t all be perfect.
As I was reflecting in the glow of the positive surprise at the identity of a man who I assumed would be an immigrant-hating cattle rancher I leaned in to my computer screen and examined the district lines a bit more carefully. I zoomed in on the map and sighed when I saw it: I actually live just barely to the east of the dividing line between the 8th and 9th districts. I’ve lived in what is now the 8th district before, but Mr Pastor isn’t currently my representative. That title goes to some chick called Kyrsten Sinema. I immediately picture an Arizonan Sarah Palin and convince myself to go check out her page.
“Holy shit!” is my first thought, “She’s fucking hot!” And she’s a Democrat, too, like old Ed! And she’s the first openly bisexual congressperson! And what’s this? She’s currently the only openly atheist congressperson!
In closing, my two representatives are better than yours. I shouldn’t brag too much, considering who my senators are. But fuck it. In your face!
And there’s our problem in a nutshell. No disrespect to ACM, but polls consistently show that people hate ‘congress’ but figure their own guy is all right.
I swear, Congressmen are like goats. They’re cute as hell one-on-one but put them in a large group and nothing is more destructive and hateful.
I just knocked my senators and trust me, if I lived 10 or so miles in just about any direction I’d hate my rep, too. Don’t hate me because [del]I’m[/del] my representative is beautiful!
But the problem I laid out IS one of two fundamental problems facing the American people as concerns congress right now.
With overall congressional approval ratings generally coming in somewhere in the teens, how do members continue to get elected? Even in gerrymandered districts an approval rating at that level should lead to huge amounts of turnover.
But it doesn’t. Most recent numbers I could find (in an admittedly half-assed search) were a May 2013 Gallup poll where voters gave their OWN congressman a 46% approval rating. That’s a good 25% swing. Combine THAT with gerrymandering and there are very few seats that will ever truly be in play.
Well, I wouldn’t call John Dingell hot, nor do I agree with him on everything, I suppose he’s not such a bad guy. Is he “better” than the OP’s Congresscritter? I’ll leave that up to the history books to decide.
This argument was more convincing before 2006. But we’ve had three wave elections in the last seven years, and voters have shown themselves quite willing to replace their Congress-critters.
I live a block south of Nevada CD1,which unfortunately puts me in CD3, with Joe Heck as my representative. He’s a pretty typical Republican (opposes abortion, the ACA, signed Norquist’s pledge, etc.). Oh, and he voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, thus confirming that he’s an asshole who only pays lip-service to the US Constitution.
A strong challenger could easily take him, but this being southern Nevada, it’s doubtful that one will appear. I’ll prolly be stuck with this idiot for a decade or more.
Or, in other world, with Congressional approval last year hovering around 10% (!!!), more than 9 out of 10 incumbents attained re-election. By far the way most seats change hands is through retirement - congressmen electing to step down - rather than a loss at the polls. One might think that they step down when they know they’re going to lose but most retire when they want to, not when they’re forced by circumstances. Even with retirement, though, most are replaced by members of their own party.
I have Mark Amodei (R). He’s been quiet and inoffensive, so no strong opinions but he doesn’t seem crazy. His name is like one letter off from being completely demonic, which is cool. He succeeded Dean Heller who is a blowhard that went to the Senate. And I want him to stop robocalling me. Before him was Gibbons who is and was a complete shithead, and thankfully is not doing much after becoming the least popular Governor in the nation.
My MP is Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of the UK Labour Party and one of the longest serving female MPs in Parliament. She’s a big hitter and stood in for Gordon Brown at Prime Minister’s Questions a few times, so I don’t think she has a lot of free time for constituency affairs. Not that it matters - my constituency is rock-solid Labour.
Saying that, she tried to stop details of Members’ expenses being disclosed. She seems generally to be a careerist.