The party of the majority in the two houses of Congress gets to choose the chairs of the various standing committees, such as Ways & Means, Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, etc.
It’s possible as I write this that the Senate could come out of Election 2000 with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. In that case:
Would the current (Republican) committee chairs stay seated?
Would the usually-perfunctory process of electing the chairs now be prolonged, as each party picks a candidate and then tries to build a coalition in that candidate’s favor with votes from the opposite party? Or would coalitions be obviated by the “rubber” vote cast by whomever becomes Vice-President?
Has this ever happened in the Senate before? I’m thinking it can’t happen in the House, since they’ve got an odd number of members (then again, I can envision 217 Democrats, 217 Republicans and 1 Bernie Sanders).
In the event that the Senate is tied in any vote, the Vice President of the U.S. (sitting as President of the Senate) gets to break the ties.
In the situation in the incoming Senate depends on several things. First, the election in Washington State is still undecided, with Maria Cantwell, the Democratic candidate, leading. Assuming she wins, the Senate, as elected, will be split 50-50. However, the Presidential election may change that. Joe Lieberman has been elected to the Senate from Connecticut, but if he is elected Vice President, he will resign from his Senate seat. The vacancy will then be appointed by the Governor of Connecticut, a Republican, and the appointee will almost certainly be a Republican.
So (assuming Cantwell wins), if Gore wins the Presidency, the Republicans will have a 51-49 majority in the Senate. If Bush wins, however, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Dick Cheney getting the deciding vote. In either event, the Republicans will have control of the Senate, and then control who is elected to Committee chairs, etc.
It could be more, um, “interesting” than that. The Senate meets and gets organized on January 3rd, while the President and VP aren’t sworn in until the 20th. If the Senate really is 50/50, including Lieberman, then the deciding vote on organizational matters would be cast by Vice-President GORE. You might then have the spectacle of Lieberman resigning to become VP, his temporary replacement being a Republican, and a minority party controlling the committees. That actually did happen in 1953, after a couple of GOP Senators died and were replaced by Democrats - the Dems left the newly-minority GOP in charge (!!! - hard to imagine today, though).
Then, the CT Legislature has the authority to call a special election, which state AG Richard Blumenthal would be likely to win, restoring the 50/50 split with VP Lieberman casting the vote to restore the Democrats to power. Or maybe the GOP CT gov would recognize reality and just appoint Blumenthal directly, preventing himself from being blamed for chaos.
As I am typing this the WA Secretary of State is reporting that the incumbent Gorton is leading Cantwell by 5000 votes. However, they aren’t supposed to be done counting in Washington until November 22.
It’s unclear how exactly the majority and minority leaders would be chosen in a 50-50 Senate since the positions didn’t exist until the 20th Century and I don’t think the Senate has been in a tie since the 19th Century. The 83rd Congress (1953-55) was 48 R, 47 D, 1 I. The 84th was 47 D, 47 R, 1 I, and 1 “Independent Democrat.” However, Lyndon Johnson was the majority leader at the time. In 1881, there were 37 R, 37 D, 1 Independent, and 1 “Readjustor”. The Republicans were considered the majority.
Interestingly, there was a position of minority leader before there was a majority leader.