Virginia Elections

Ahead of State and Local Elections in Virginia - these are some of the best news sources relating to the election. I gave a brief overview of the elections on my SpectrumonAir programme PPS.

Washington Post - www.washingtonpost.com

Politico (Virginia news) - https://www.politico.com/news/virginia

Roll Call - https://www.rollcall.com

The Hill - https://thehill.com

NBC 12 (Richmond, VA) - https://www.nbc12.com/news/state/

Virginia Department of Elections - https://www.elections.virginia.gov

Time for a Break?

A question which can apply at many levels.

Today Britain takes a break from the European Union. I hope it won't be a long one.

But the break I propose to address this evening (when I wrote this), is whether it is time to take a break from "the News". I have been a compulsive news consumer for as long as I can remember. Whether it was newspapers; radio & TV news from the 1970s onwards - through to the era of rolling news, and the explosion of access to news (and some that don't deserve being called that) sites. As of the 1st January this year I had subscriptions to The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (France), Washington Post (USA) and China Daily (China). I also took news via alerts on my iPhone & iPad from all of those and others - as well as being signed up for emails from Roll Call; The Hill; the House of Commons Library; and as a result of being the Labour Party Candidate for Buckingham during the recent General Election, I still receive all the news from the Labour Party Press Office including Overnight Media & Broadcast briefs on a daily basis. I have also been a frequent user of twitter.

Enough is surely enough?

I've been cutting down - I'm so disillusioned by the News and Current Affairs output of BBC TV & Radio, that I no longer listen. I'm running my subscriptions to newspapers down - and unsubscribing from alerts and emails - and rarely look at Twitter.

Is that going too far?

Whilst down in London recently (one of the British Museum visits) I popped into Foyles and purchased a book called "STOP READING THE NEWS" by Rolf Dobelli. It really is a good read - with some very sensible points. It is subtitled "A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life', I would thoroughly recommend it to you.



Its contents include
- How I gave up the News (did I mention it was a signed copy?)
- News is to the Mind What Sugar is to the Body
- Radical Abstinence
- The Thirty-Day Plan
- The Soft Option
- News is |rrelevant
- News gets Risk Assessment All Wrong
- News is a Waste of Time
- News Obscures the Big Picture
- News is Toxic to Your Body
- News Confirms Our Mistakes.....
...
- News Encourages Terrorism
- News Destroys Our Peace of Mind

Dobelli also deals with potential objections to his argument, including 'What About Democracy'

In my view he makes some very good points. Do read it yourself!

I've been reflecting on what he says, and how I feel about some of the news and certain news organisations (and last night went to see the excellent film, "Bombshell" (French Title - "Scandale") about Fox News - part of the truly awful Murdoch Empire) - and came to the following conclusions -

I will "stop reading the News" - that doesn't mean that I won't be keeping myself informed about what is going on in the world. But instead of "consuming news", I'll be harvesting information about issues that matter to me. (Spoiler alert - Education, The Environment, Transport, Health (particularly avoidable illnesses)

There are a number of sources - I will still use (for the time being) the Daily editions of Le Monde, China Daily & the Washington Post - but only look at the in-depth pieces about issues. I'll still dip into France 24, Euronews, CGTN & CNN for in depth stories - but will make more use of the House of Commons Library, and regularly visit the websites of the British Parliament, the French Parliament, US Congress, the National People's Congress of China - and the Executive websites for those countries.

I'll still be making notes on the issues - what they are, and how different countries or International bodies are seeking to tackle them.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions - you can post them here - or send to MorganBuckinghamLabour@mail.com (I might as well recycle the email account I used during the election - but just for Washminster responses.

Thankyou.

Following Congress

For newer readers of Washminster - a short guide to following events in Congress.

The best resources come from the Houses and Senate themselves.

House of Representatives

The website can be found at http://www.house.gov There is lots of background information. Click on the tabs underneath the main header

- Members of the House [Representatives] - the district (UK - constituency); name; party; Office - do see the 'Key to Room Codes' on that page - and in future posts I will give some of the background to each of the Office Buildings); Telephone number; and the Committees that each member sits on. This page can be listed alphabetically either by State or by Members' last name.

- Leadership - Names (with pictures) of the leadership of each of the two parties. Currently the Republicans (also referred to sometimes as the G.O.P.) are the Majority, and the Democrats are the Minority.

- Committees - these are the powerful workhorses of the House. Woodrow Wilson (when writing as a scholar, before he became President) wrote that "The House sits, not for serious discussion, but to sanction the conclusions of its committees as rapidly as possible. It legislates in its committee rooms...". They are much more powerful than Westminster committees - although the power of the Leadership (the Speaker) has greatly increased in recent decades.

- Legislative Activity - This page has key links to resources enabling the House to be followed from off Capitol Hill - and indeed across the world. You can look ahead with the House calendar (the coming year); the more immediate schedule; keep up to date with the day's business as it happens - Floor proceedings.  The live streaming of committee meetings and hearings can be found at https://www.congress.gov/committees/video When the day is over, you can read the Daily Digest of the Congressional Record for the previous day (and other dates).

- The House Explained - is a good resource for learning about the House and how it works.

The Rules Committee has on its website, a 'parliamentary Bootcamp' - which provides an excellent course on House practice and procedure.

Senate

The Senate website is https://www.senate.gov. The red tabs take you to -

- A list of Senators, with key information about each. It also tells you which 'class' they are - this tells you when they are up for re-election. Class 1 Senators are up for re-election in November 2018.

- Committees

- Legislation and Records - allows you to search by bill number and track floor activity; and using the blue sidebar you can follow other Senate activities - such as confirmations and Treaty ratifications. The Senate calendar and Floor Schedule can be accessed at https://www.senate.gov/legislative/calendars.htm 

Other red tabs take you to information about the Seanate's history; the art it contains; advice on visiting the Senate; and other reference material.

The Senate website is compact - so worth exploring the various links on the site - because there is a host of information to be uncovered.

The Media

To watch Congress - C-SPAN is the place to head to. Again it is a website worth exploring. As well as live streams from the House and Senate - there is a vast, searchable, video library. This not only covers proceedings within Congress - but programmes about history, the courts, and political issues. I hope to produce a post shortly just on C-SPAN.

Congress has three main newspapers devoted to it - and they each have websites. You can subscribe to newsletters and alerts from each of them. They are

Politico
The Hill
RollCall

I'm a big fan of (even if President Trump isn't), and a subscriber to

The Washington Post
New York Times

Campaign Contributions and Partisanship

Last week Don Wolfensberger published the following article in Roll Call. I have a great deal of respect for his column and his work. It's an article worth reading -

An interesting debate is swirling around next Tuesday’s midterm elections for Congress. It involves the extent to which the sources, amounts and uses of campaign contributions will affect not only the outcomes of various hotly contested races but the makeup, policy agenda and processes of the next Congress.

The 2010 midterms returned Republicans to power in the House after four years of Democratic rule. They also brought in a wave of hardline tea party conservatives who made any kind of cooperation between the House, Senate and White House nearly impossible. The re-election of President Barack Obama in 2012 did not alter that dynamic. If anything, it made governing even more problematic as the 2013 government shutdown amply demonstrated.

Two events this month helped highlight the nexus between campaign financing and polarization in Congress.

The Bipartisan Policy Center convened a roundtable Oct. 16 that brought together scholars, political practitioners, good government groups and journalists to discuss whether the current state of campaign financing is responsible for the increasing level of polarization and gridlock in Congress. 

The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs hosted the second event Oct. 20 in Austin, “Mastering Congress: Political Reform 50 Years After the Great Society.” The program featured two former Texas congressmen who serve on the BPC Commission on Political Reform, and two political scientists who are coauthors of an award-winning book on the increasing role members of Congress play in raising money for their party campaign committees and other candidates.

Dueling duos of academic election experts kicked-off the former roundtable. Tom Mann and Anthony Corrado, governance studies fellows at the Brookings Institution, take issue with those who assert that campaign finance law restrictions have weakened the parties and strengthened outside groups that tend to support more extreme candidates. They maintain that parties are as strong as ever but that the Republican Party “has veered sharply right in recent decades” producing an “asymmetric polarization” characterized by an unwillingness to compromise and a set of “unusually confrontational tactics.”

University of Massachusetts political scientists Ray LaRaja and Brian Schaffner say their research at the state level suggests Mann and Corrado “could be wrong.” Their study indicates that, “states with party-centered campaign finance laws tend to be less polarized than states that constrain how the parties can support candidates.” This is because party organizations tend to fund more moderate, pragmatic candidates. Both sides of the debate concur that recent campaign financing developments are not the overriding cause of increased polarization but have certainly exacerbated it.

Eric Heberlig of the University of North Carolina and Bruce Larson of Gettysburg College, co-authors of “Congressional Parties, Institutional Ambition, and the Financing of Majority Control,” told the Austin conference about the explosive, coordinated growth since 1990 in campaign giving by members of Congress to their party committees and other candidates. Today, party leaders importune their members to give generously to their party campaign committees. The leadership establishes quotas for overall giving to the party depending on a member’s position in the leadership or on committees.

Consequently, members spend less time on their legislative work in Congress and more time raising campaign funds for their own re-election and their party. Former Reps. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, and Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, agreed that members now spend at least one-fourth of their time attending fundraisers and dialing for dollars. Committees consequently are less involved in serious policymaking as party leaders increasingly shape the legislative agenda to satisfy party campaign contributors.  The former congressmen say this shift was especially noticeable beginning in 2006 (Bonilla) or 2010 (Gonzalez).

The increasing role of Super PACs and wealthy, independent donors in recent election cycles poses more unanswered questions about the impact of campaign giving on the agenda and processes of Congress. If there is some correlation between the growth and sources of campaign spending, on the one hand, and legislative outcomes in Congress, then record-breaking campaign spending this cycle could either make the 114th Congress even more gridlocked than its predecessor or more unified and productive around a few select issues — all depending on which party wins the Senate.

Don Wolfensberger is a resident scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and former staff director of the House Rules Committee.

Tortilla Coast

From "Politico"

-- SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TEXAS), the architect of the government shutdown, was spotted Monday night at Tortilla Coast, huddling with 15 to 20 House conservatives devising a strategy on how to respond to a Senate deal, Roll Call's Matt Fuller reports. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, also dining in the restaurant, appeared interested in what the group was discussing. http://bit.ly/15DdPZ3

Tortilla Coast is my favourite eating place on the Hill. (see my post from October 2009); I tasted my first margarita there - and it is where I celebrated my 50th birthday with a meal.

It is very close to the House Offices on Capitol Hill - to get there one passes the capitol South metro station - and it's on the right hand corner of the road.

 

I'm not very keen on receiving messages from Senator Cruz and his buddies at the moment (they've taken the US & the world to a very dangerous place for the sake of their ideology) - but I would accept a "wish you were here" message from them. 

Politics in America

I have received the latest volume of this excellent book published by CQ Roll Call. This covers the 113th Congress and includes biographical details of every member of Congress and details of election results. I have been buying Politics in America since the 2002 version (107th Congress) and used both my own copies and earlier volumes whilst in Washington for background research on the individuals who had been (or are) whips.

It is available in the UK through Amazon (your purchase through this website will cost you the same, but contribute to "Washminster") - or from CQ Roll Call in the USA.



I also buy National Journal's "Almanac of American Politics". That is not yet available, but can be ordered at

 

(My order is already in).

Congressional "Casualties"

Roll Call regularly updates its Casuality List - Members who have either left, or have announced that they are leaving Congress. It's a useful tool for seeing which races will be fought in an "Open" seat. Incumbents have great advantages, and many seats only change hands when a long serving member retires. It's also useful for noting who is moving on - as many of you know, I am coming to the end of my studies for my Ph.D. looking at whips in  the four Houses of the US Congress and UK Parliament. As I shall be visiting Washington DC shortly I'm keen to know which whips and former whips will be leaving town at the end of the year.

The current list of "casualties" is

Appointed to Senate — (1 House: 1R)


House: Dean Heller (R-Nev.), 51, 3 terms

Running for Senate — (12 House: 6D, 6R)

House:
Todd Akin (R-Mo.), 64, 6 terms
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), 50, 7 terms
Rick Berg (R-N.D.), 52, 1 term
Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), 61, 7 terms
Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), 56, 3 terms
Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), 49, 6 terms
Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), 40, 2 terms
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), 64, 3 terms
Connie Mack IV (R-Fla.), 44, 4 terms
Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.), 38, 3 terms
Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), 56, 6 terms
Bob Turner (R-N.Y.), 70, 1 term

Running for Other Office — (3 House: 1D, 2R)

House:
Bob Filner (D-Calif.), 69, 10 terms
Ron Paul (R-Texas), 76, 8 terms *running for president, & has announced retirement at end of this Congress.

Mike Pence (R-Ind.), 52, 6 terms

Retiring — (23 House: 14D, 9R; 10 Senate: 6D, 1I, 3R)

House:
Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), 69, 14 terms
Steve Austria (R-Ohio), 53, 2 terms
Dan Boren (D-Okla.), 38, 4 terms
Dan Burton (R-Ind.), 73, 15 terms
Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), 52, 5 terms
Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), 62, 12 terms
Geoff Davis (R-Ky.), 53, 4 terms
Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), 71, 18 terms
David Dreier (R-Calif.), 59, 16 terms
Barney Frank (D-Mass.), 71, 16 terms
Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), 68, 13 terms
Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas), 66, 7 terms
Wally Herger (R-Calif.), 66, 13 terms
Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), 73, 10 terms
Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), 82, 18 terms
Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), 77, 17 terms
Brad Miller (D-N.C.), 58, 5 terms
Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), 70, 9 terms
John Olver (D-Mass.), 75, 10 terms
Todd Platts (R-Pa.), 50, 6 terms
Mike Ross (D-Ark.), 50, 6 terms
Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), 40, 3 terms
Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), 74, 10 terms
Senate:
Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), 87, 3 terms
Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), 68, 5 terms
Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), 64, 3 terms
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), 68, 3 terms
Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), 77, 4 terms
Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), 69, 3 terms
Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), 70, 4 terms
Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), 70, 2 terms
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), 65, 3 terms
Jim Webb (D-Va.), 66, 1 term

Defeated in Primary — (3 House: 1D, 2R)

House:
Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), 65, 8 terms
Don Manzullo (R-Ill.), 67, 10 terms
Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), 60, 3 terms

Resigned — (6 House: 5D, 1R; 1 Senate: 1R)

House:
Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), 41, 3 terms
Jane Harman (D-Calif.), 66, 6 terms
Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), 61, 8 terms
Chris Lee (R-N.Y.), 47, 2 terms
Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), 47, 7 terms
David Wu (D-Ore.), 56, 7 terms
Senate:
John Ensign (R-Nev.), 53, 2 terms

Died — (1 House: 1D)

House: Donald Payne (D-N.J.), 77, 12 terms

RollCall - Briefing on Today in Congress

THE SENATE: Convenes at 2 p.m., with a procedural vote scheduled for 3 p.m. on a bill that largely reflects the tax deal that Obama cut with Republicans. The vote will be held open for a few hours as senators stream back into town from the weekend, but no surprises are expected. The legislation will advance, and a vote on passage will occur as early as Tuesday night. The measure then heads to the House, where Pelosi faces some tough decisions about how to handle it.

A Week to Go

A week today and it will be election day in the US. Early voting is possible in many state. According to a list published in Roll Call Vermont was open for early voting from September 20th, with South Dakota from 21st. If you are a voter in the US check the last day, and what documents you are required to bring with you. Louisiana ends early voting today, and the final day does vary between states.

If you want to follow the news direct from the US, the following websites are available

CNN
MSNBC
USA Today
Washington Post
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
Politico
C-SPAN

Keeping up with News from Congress

As well as signing up for "Tweets" [See the post http://washminster.blogspot.com/2009/08/watching-newswires.html] - it is possible to read some of the newspapers in Washington online.

The Hill - there is a link in column 4 to "print editions"

Washington Post

C-SPAN is available on the internet - and their current schedule is available at http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=schedule

Watching the Newswires

Twitter can be used for many things. Much ridicule has been heaped on those who use it to broadcast their every insignificant move, action or thought to the world. But it can be a useful way of keeping up to date with news from Congress and Parliament.

If you haven't got an account yet - just sign up at http://twitter.com/. I've had an account for a long time now - but have recently started to use "Tweetdeck" as a platform that allows me to have my screen updated regularly with "Tweets" from individuals and bodies I follow - as well as updates of my friends' status on Facebook. I can also "tweet" direct to Twitter and Facebook. To download TweetDeck go to http://tweetdeck.com/beta/download/.

My favourite sources of news are :-

US Congress

CQPolitics - Excellent & Frequent Tweeter on Congress. Well Respected Publisher on Congress

RollCall - my favourite newspaper available in DC (and by subscription even in Milton Keynes)

thehill - from "The Hill" a newspaper about Congress

CSPAN - the cable channel providing live coverage of Congress - and much much more

Senatus - coverage of US Senate

OpenCRS - access to some of the excellent reports produced by the first class CRS

Senator Reid - Majority Leader of the Senate

NancyPelosi - unofficial site, news of the Speaker of the House of Representatives

Johnboehner - Minority Leader, House of Representatives

UK Parliament

UK Parliament - from the Palace of Westminster direct

Politics_co_uk - good UK based news service

Epolitix - another good news service specialising in Parliamentary matters

Hansard Society - from that excellent Society (see many previous posts)

Downing Street - from No 10

I'd welcome any of your recommendations. (If you want to link up with me on facebook - my name their is 'jdavidmorgan'. I also use Skype - with the same name.)

Baseball - Shock Result!

Democrats defeated Republicans 15-10 on Wednesday night at Nationals Park in the 48th Annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game, lifting the newspaper’s coveted trophy for first time since 2000.

Roll Call reports:-

Republican pitcher Rep. John Shimkus (Ill.) gave the Democrats an early lead, allowing 6 runs in the second inning. The GOP hurler started off the inning by walking Reps. Brian Baird (Wash.) and Christopher Murphy (Pa.), who both scored on a double by Rep. Tim Bishop (N.Y.).

Shimkus had thrown more than 50 pitches by the end of the second inning.

The GOP battled back in the top of the third inning, tying it up at 6. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) led off the inning with a base hit, followed by a walk to Rep. Sam Graves (Mo.) and a long hit to the outfield by the GOP second baseman, Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas). Rep. Gresham Barrett (S.C.) hit a three-run triple to the gap in left before later scoring what was then the tying run.

With the game tied at 6, Republican manager Rep. Joe Barton (Texas) replaced Shimkus on the mound with Rep. Adam Putnam (Fla.) in the bottom of the third.

That’s when all hell broke loose for the Republicans.

The Sunshine State lawmaker proceeded to give up five walks, two base hits, a wild pitch, nine runs and, ultimately, the Democrats’ first win in nearly a decade. Graves ended the inning with a dazzling catch in center field after Shimkus had returned to the mound to relieve his reliever.
Republicans mounted a valiant comeback attempt in the seventh and final inning, but scored only 3 runs before freshman Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (Calif.) ended the game looking at a called third strike.

With a win on Wednesday night, Democrats take the first game of a five-game series.
Democratic first baseman Bart Stupak (Mich.) turned in the defensive play of the game, catching a foul pop as he tumbled over the dugout railing in the fourth inning.

Congressional Institution Hits A Hundred

The Congressional Baseball Game is due to be played tonight at the Nationals Stadium (the new Home of the Major League Baseball team, the Washington Nationals). It is a century since this event was first held. Members of Congress play on party teams. A special feature in 'Roll Call' outlines the history and details of the game. The winning team gains the Roll Call Trophy.

The rosters are:

DEMOCRATS

Michael Arcuri HoR New York (Outfield)

Joe Baca HoR California (Pitcher/Infield)

Brian Baird HoR Washington State (Pitcher/Outfield)

Tim Bishop HoR New York (3rd Base)

John Boccieri HoR Ohio (Utility)

Bruce Braley HoR Iowa (Outfield/1st Base)

Sherrod Brown Senate Ohio (Outfield)

Russ Carnahan HoR Missouri (Utility)

Christopher Carney HoR Pennsylvania (Utility)

Ben Chandler HoR Kentucky (Infield)

William Lacy Clay HoR Missouri (1st Base/Outfield)

Joe Donnelly HoR Indiana (Center Field)

Steve Driehaus HoR Ohio (2nd Base)

Mike Doyle HoR Pennsylvania (Manager)

Tim Holden HoR Pennsylvania (Coach)

REPUBLICANS

Graham Barrett HoR S Carolina (Catcher)

Joe Barton HoR Texas (Manager)

Kevin Brady HoR Texas (2nd Base)

Steve Buyer HoR Indiana (Coach)

Mike Conaway HoR Texas (1st Base)

John Ensign Senate Nevada (Pitcher/Shortstop)

Jeff Flake HoR Arizona (Outfield)

John Fleming HoR Louisiana (2nd Base)

Phil Gingrey HoR Georgia (Outfield)

Louie Gohmert HoR Texas (Outfield)

Sam Graves HoR Missouri (Outfield)

Gregg Harper HoR Mississippi (1st Base)

Duncan Hunter HoR California (Pitcher)

Jack Kingston HoR Georgia (2nd Base)

Connie Mack HoR Florida (Outfield)

Thaddeus McCotter HoR Michigan (Outfield)

Pete Olson HoR Texas (Utility)

Adam Putnam HoR Florida (Outfield)

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen HoR Florida (Designated Hitter)

Tom Rooney HoR Florida (1st Base)

Steve Scalise HoR Louisiana (2nd Base)

Pete Sessions HoR Texas (Coach)

John Shimkus Hor Illinois (Pitcher)

Bill Shuster HoR Pennsylvania (Outfield)

Adrian Smith HoR Nebraska (Utility)

Todd Tiahrt HoR Kansas (Outfield)

Zach Wamp HoR Tennessee (Shortstop)

Rob Wittman HoR Virginia (Outfield)

The rules of Baseball can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Baseball_Rules

Bailout Information

Roll Call, the respected journal which appears on Capitol hill - and thankfully has an online subsciption (which I value greatly) - is publishing a webpage dealing with the Bailout. It describes itself as -

"Roll Call's Bailout Information Center is a clearinghouse for Roll Call's extensive coverage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. It also serves as a resource to examine how each member of Congress voted and voice your opinion directly to your lawmaker."

http://www.rollcallgroup.com/bailout/