Primary season continues, and this Saturday Alaska will hold a special congressional election to fill the seat of the late Don Young (R). He spent 49 years in the House and rarely faced a serious challenger. But this year’s election is different from previous primaries. The state is holding this primary and its regular congressional […]
Why more Americans should visit the offi...
Recently, I conducted an informal survey. I asked 10 friends and professional colleagues whether they had ever visited the office of their member of Congress. Not a single one of them had. I was not surprised: Until I went to work for Congress in my early 30s, I had not visited a legislator or his […]
Requiring majority winners for congressi...
Most elections for Congress feature a general election with a Democrat and a Republican who previously were picked by partisan primaries. These first-past-the-post elections present voters with a singular choice: Pick the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate. This limited choice is becoming increasingly problematic for Americans as fewer and fewer of them much like either of […]
Nonpartisan redistricting in California:...
California recently finalized its redistricting map. The state lost one seat after the 2020 Census, but the Golden State still will send a whopping 52 legislators to the 435-member House of Representatives in January 2023. By law, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CCRC) draws the congressional districts, along with the boundaries for the state’s Senate, assembly, […]
1 cheer for postal reform
This week, the House of Representatives voted to advance postal reform legislation by 342 to 92. That Democrats and Republicans alike could vote, in an election year, no less, for H.R. 3076 is praiseworthy. Postal reform is rare; only two significant postal reform bills have been enacted in the past half-century. Moreover, this usually drab issue has become […]
Is there a path forward for Congress on ...
Last month’s party-line vote in the Senate to not enact new elections reform legislation was unsurprising. The legislation had been drawn up by congressional Democrats, and was presented to the GOP as a take-it-or-leave it proposition. Republicans saw little to like in the sprawling 700-page bill that combined both the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and a […]