Chapter 9: The Culture of State Legislatures

Question 1

Legislatures Functions

Answer 1

make statutory laws, amend state constitutions, “service” constituents, bring gov’t funding to their districts

Question 2

Legislature Importance and Value

Answer 2

value of a legislature is how many votes they can bring to bear for the party/cause; reliance on expertise of others is routine and necessary

Question 3

Challenges of Geographic Representation

Answer 3

heterogenous constituency without clear identity; drives compromise as path to winning elections (unless boundaries are rigged)

Question 4

Legislative and Congressional Redistricting

Answer 4

redistricting determines “who represents who” — not by elections; “fair” redistricting is defined as “equal” division of population within state

Question 5

Redistricting Criteria

Answer 5

Equality of Population: within limits provided; Contiguity: all portions of a district must be in contact with each other; Protected Groups: do groups previously prevented from voting by state law have a fair chance to affect the outcome of an election?; Shape of District: cannot be “bizarre”, but can be “odd”

Question 6

Protected Groups

Answer 6

designated by Voting Rights Act; racial minorities that must receive special levels of attention to ensure fair treatment in elections; concerns extends from presence of representation to likelihood of winning election; redistricting test: these groups cannot be “worse off” than in previous districting schemes; other groups may lose as expense of protecting designated groups

Question 7

Texas’ Designated Protected Groups

Answer 7

African-Americans and Hispanics

Question 8

Gerrymandering: Partisan Redistricting

Answer 8

no prohibition against the party in power by choosing where to draw district boundaries for maximum partisan advantage; two types: packing and cracking

Question 9

Packing

Answer 9

concentrating the opposing party’s voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts

Question 10

Cracking

Answer 10

diluting the voting power of the opposing party’s supporters across many districts

Question 11

How Were Gerrymandered Maps Opposed Successfully

Answer 11

proving violations of any of 4 rules; use either of 2 legal strategies: arguing that redistrict should only be permitted once each decade; arguing that the sate officials redrawing the lines were showing “excessive partisanship”; and reliance on the federal gov’t to stop most gerrymandering in all VRA-covered states via pre-clearance

Question 12

LULAC v. Perry: Protections Against Gerrymandering Eroded

Answer 12

result: redistricting maps declared unacceptable in 1996 was approved in 2006

Question 13

3 Requirements to the Process of Redistricting

Answer 13

1. consistency w/ unnatural and political boundaries 2. compactness 3. forbid the use of partisanship data

Question 14

How to Restore Competition to Elections in State

Answer 14

change law to force compromise b/w the 2 parties; require the state courts to approve the map as complying with the established criteria

Question 15

How Do Legislatures Really “Represent” Constituents?

Answer 15

today’s representational model is based on communication, not congruency; little to moderate congruence exists b/w legislatures and citizens

Question 16

Legislature’s Most Important Activity?

Answer 16

members say… Killing BAD bills!; these bills harm their constituents, waste resources, and are ideologically wrong

Question 17

One or More legislatures must ____ and ___ the bill

Answer 17

sponsor and introduce; sponsors are hard to find and the sponsor(s) may only want to assuage the constituents, not fight for its passage

Question 18

All Bills are _____, but _____

Answer 18

assigned to a committee,but many are never discussed; many bills are never approved by their committee

Question 19

Bills That Come Out of Committee are Then _____

Answer 19

assigned to a “calendar” based on content and priority but different calendars have different rules about amendments, debate, etc

Question 20

Bills Must Pass Both _____

Answer 20

the initial floor vote AND reconsideration

Question 21

Bills that Pass in one Chamber _____

Answer 21

must repeat the entire process in the other chamber

Question 22

Bills that are Passed by Both Chambers _____

Answer 22

must be exactly alike, or a “conference” must try to find compromise and resubmit the reused bill to both chambers for approval

Question 23

The Speaker (House) and Lieutenant Governor (Senate) can _____

Answer 23

bless or curse a bill depending on whether they like it or not

Question 24

Speaker (House) and Lt. Gov. (Senate) may…

Answer 24

1. bestow a special low # to any bill to signal top priority 2. assign a bill to an “easy” committee if they want the bill to come to a vote 3. assign a bill to an “impossible” committee if they want to kill the bill 4. they can use various techniques to limit or influence debate of a bill on the floor

Question 25

Since Successful Bills Must Pass in Both Chambers, Both _____ and _____ must _____

Answer 25

the speaker and the Lt. Governor must support the bill

Question 26

The Governor must _____, or at least be _____, in order for the bill to become law

Answer 26

also support the bill, or at least be unwilling to veto

Question 27

Common Strategy to Improve Odds of Getting a Bill Through

Answer 27

original bills are often augmented with “identical bills”: duplicate bills and companion bills

Question 28

“Identical Bill” - Duplicate Bill

Answer 28

copy of a bill introduced in the SAME chamber

Question 29

Companion Bill - “Identical Bill”

Answer 29

copy of a bill introduced in the OTHER chamber

Question 30

Why are There Identical Bills?

Answer 30

increase chances of passage and shares success b/w authors of original bill and each identical bill

Question 31

Use of Identical Bills and Measuring Success in Texas

Answer 31

Traditional Success Measure: passage of an individual bill; Legislator’s Success Measure: passage of a bill or any identical bill

Question 32

How Many Readings can Each Bill Receive and What Are They?

Answer 32

3 “readings”; 3 “readings” are NOT 3 careful considerations of the content of a bill

Question 33

What is a Reading?

Answer 33

merely the recital of the bill’s caption

Question 34

What Occurs at the First “Reading” of a Bill?

Answer 34

accompanies its assignment to a committee

Question 35

What Occurs at the Second “Reading” of a Bill?

Answer 35

the second reading is given when a bill passes out of committee — copies of entire bill are placed at each desk — most discussion, debate, amendments occur at that point

Question 36

What Occurs at the Third “Reading” of a Bill?

Answer 36

the last chance for debate and amendments, followed by “final” floor vote

Question 37

How Do Calendars help the Legislator’s Leadership Control?

Answer 37

helps with 1. whether a bill will ever come up on the agenda 2. whether debate will occur on a bill 3. whether amendments will be permitted to a bill 4. whether a full vote or an expedited vote will be what is required to pass the bill

Question 38

How do Members Determine Their Positions on Various Bills?

Answer 38

sometimes they are the expert, often they look to other legislators w/ experience and whom they trust, and often they adopt positions of special interests

Question 39

When did “Hyper-Partisanship” Begin?

Answer 39

when democrats were the majority party in the House, bills from Republicans were more successful than bills from democrats in most sessions

Question 40

What is Ghost Voting?

Answer 40

when a representative votes for another representative