The Mid terms (say the election is fair)

[brettdale]

For those Duers that aren't Americans, could someone explain the midterms elections.

I understand, its for your senate and Governor races.

Is it true that if your a senator you are higher up than a Gov oner.

What is the standing now for the Senate? The Repugs have more senators than the Democrats?

What are the current numbers? and what can the Democrats hope for if the election is fair?

How many seats can the democrats win?

[ThomWV]

1. Nutshell Version

States have elections for state offices, and among those is the office of Governor.

Federal elections are of three sorts. Members of the House of Representatives are all up for reelection once every 2 years. Senators are elected once every 6 years. The Senate is divided into 3 "Classes" labeled A, B, and C. Each class of Senators is elected once every two years with classes rotating So Class A would be one cycle, Class B, the next and Class C Senators up for reelection the third cycle. President and Vice President come up once every 4 years.

Off year elections take place in the 2 year cycle between the 4 year Presidential elections. Each two years you get all House members and one third of the Senators. Once every 4 years you get the President, Vice President, all House members, and one third of the Senate.

[AX10]

2. For starters:

There are 435 members in the House of Representatives (218 is a majority of 1 seat/Every seat is up for re-election)
There are 100 Senators (one third of the chamber is up for re-election this year)

Currently:

Senate:
Dem: 45
Rep: 55

House:
Dem: 203
Rep: 232

Governorships:
Dem: 22
Rep: 28
----------------------------------
Possible range of seats one by the Democrats on November 7th, 2006:
Senate:
Dem: 48-53

House:
212-238

Governorships:
Dem: 25-31

[Greeby]

3. I'm not American but, here goes

Elections are held every two years for ALL 435 members of the House of Representatives, 1/3rd of the Senate, and 1/3rd of the Governorships. Mid-term elections are those which do not fall on the same year as Presidential Elections.

The House:
In the current 109th Congress, there are 231 Republicans and 201 Democrats, plus 1 Independent (Bernie Sanders), there are currently two seats vacant (Tom Delay: resignation, and Bob Menendez: Appointment to Senate)

The magic number for Democrats to win control of the House is 218, and this will give them control of the committees, which include subpeona power and possible impeachment.


The Senate:
There are 100 Senators, each state having two regardless of it's size. At present there are 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats (yes, including the nominal Joe Lieberman) and 1 Independent. The Democrats need 51 seats to control the Senate. In the event that both parties recieved 50 seats, tie-breaking votes would be cast by the Vice-President, in this case Cheney. This was the scenario after the 2000 election until Jim Jeffords became Independent and caucused with the Democrats, bringing the Senate into Dem control until the 2002 mid-terms when the Repukes won it back.


http://www.thegreenpapers.com/

[brettdale]

5. Thanks for the all info

One last question

If the Democrats win control of the house what are the odds that they will start talking Impeachment?

[skids]

6. At the very least...

...whether they go for impeachment or not (I would certainly hope so) they will have subpoena power. Only the majority has it -- the minority can hold hearings, but they do not have any bite.

[Ediacara]

4. Theoretically senators and governors are equal

They're different branches of different kinds of government, so it's not really a good or easy comparison.

The midterm elections are called midterms because they're in the middle of a presidential term. All 435 house seats have elections (these have elections every two years), 1/3 of the 100 senate seats have elections, and about 3/4 of states have governors elections. Those states w/o governors elections during midterms have them either the same year as presidential elections (WA, MT, UT, ND, MO, and NC), the year after presidential elections (NJ and VA), or the year before presidential elections (MS, LA, IN, and KY). Two states (NH and VT) have two year terms for governor, so their elections are held both in presidential years and in midterms.

As for the current senate, it's 55R, 44D, 1I. This is how I see the senate election shaping up:

giving us between 48D-1I-51R and 52D-1I-47R. I think it will probably end up at 50 or 51 Democrats plus a dem-leaning independent.

ON EDIT: I should add, the purple states are those that I think are currently too close to call. Connecticut is a special case, as either winner will be counted as a Democrat when congress reconvenes (well according to Lieberman that's what will happen if he wins :eyes:). The yellow state is a projected win by Bernie Sanders, an independent (socialist actually) who will caucus with the Democrats (just as he has in the House).

As for the number of governors, it doesn't really matter on a national level (aside from wanting as many states run by responsible adults as possible), except that governors tend to be more electable as presidents. Here is how I see the governors election shaping up (note that those states w/o elections this year are marked as either light blue or pink based on the party of the current governor).