Biased Elections in the House of Representatives :: Politics Political Essays

Biased Elections in the House of RepresentativesElections for the United States Congress have become increasingly biased in favor of the incumbents. The problem is especially prevailing in the House of Representatives, which is designed to be the legislature closest to the people, and therefore most reflective of the peoples views. However, unlike elections for governors or presidents, the congressional races argon for the most part not competitive races. While an incumbent president does have some advantages over a challenger, they are not guaranteed the win. In fact, two of the bear four presidents lost their bid for re-election, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George Bush in 1992. However, in the last four House elections, on average, 92.7% of the incumbents seeking re-election won (Vital Statistics on Congress). There are many reasons for this trend in the House, and just as many possible themes, but most are likely to fail. However, if the House is to repose truly represent ative of the people and of the changing times, clearly something must be done. It is at first surprising that incumbents dont always win in the Senate also. But this is not the case. The incumbent success rate since World War II is only 75% in the Senate, a much more conjectural number. Because the Senate carries more prestige than the House, it is not surprising that Senate races would be more hotly contested. Most people who run for the Senate already hold a public locating of some kind, or for some other reason have good name recognition. These two things explain the competition in the Senate, both candidates are generally competent representatives, and people are already familiar with them. However, most candidates running for a House seat do not have a honored political background. Because of this, a candidate must either have some other form of name recognition or have a great deal of money to get it. Unfortunately, most people dont have either of these, and this is why the House incumbents win 93% of the time. One possible solution to this problem, the one Americans are currently enacting, is to do nothing. While the incumbent success rate for re-election is extraordinarily high, there is still turnover in the House delinquent to retirement for various reasons and losses in campaigns. For example, in the 1994 elections, 48 people retired and 38 incumbents were defeated in the election.