Posts tagged Nancy Pelosi

A House Divided: August 23 Edition

49
9 months ago
by Monotreme in

The Repub­li­can and Demo­c­ra­tic con­ven­tions will occupy much of our inter­est for the next two weeks, so I want to take this oppor­tu­nity to check in on the House races and see if any­thing is dif­fer­ent since our August 6 update.

Short ver­sion: not much has changed.

The Cook Polit­i­cal Report’s Com­pet­i­tive House Race chart seems to be out of com­mis­sion, or per­haps hid­den behind a pay­wall now. I still have access to the Cook race changes, and there’s not much dif­fer­ence from last report. One less race is com­pet­i­tive (was 91, now 90) accord­ing to Cook. The Democ­rats have picked up one more Likely D and one Likely R has moved into safe territory.

This report, I’m com­par­ing Cook to Larry Sabato’s Crys­tal Ball (last updated July 11), and The New York Times (last updated date unclear). There’s also race reports at the National Jour­nal’s Hot­line (updated July 18).

The House now stands at 191 Democ­rats, 240 Repub­li­cans, with four vacant seats (two from each party).

After the jump, I’ve made a graphic com­par­ing Cook, Sabato and the New York Times.

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A House Divided

16
9 months ago
by Monotreme in

Over here at Log­a­rchism, we’ve been con­cen­trat­ing on the Pres­i­den­tial race and Sen­ate races. In large part, this is because we’re a data-​​driven group of blog­gers, and there isn’t much polling data on House races.

Today, I’ll take our first look at House races, and if there’s inter­est, we’ll make it a reg­u­lar (per­haps monthly) fea­ture. I’m using the Cook Polit­i­cal Report’s Com­pet­i­tive House Race chart (last updated August 2) as my guide. There are sim­i­lar rat­ings from other polit­i­cal sci­en­tists, for exam­ple Larry Sabato’s Crys­tal Ball (last updated July 11), The New York Times (last updated date unclear) and the National Jour­nal’s Hot­line (updated July 18).

The elec­tions for the 111th Con­gress took place in Novem­ber 2008. The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in the 111th Con­gress ended with 255 Democ­rats and 179 Repub­li­cans, with one Repub­li­can vacancy (shown in white on the chart).

The elec­tions for the 112th Con­gress took place in Novem­ber, 2010. In that elec­tion, 193 Democ­rats and 242 Repub­li­cans were elected. Thus, the 2010 elec­tions resulted in a loss of 62 Demo­c­ra­tic seats, with the Repub­li­cans gain­ing by the same amount, of course.

The House now stands at 191 Democ­rats, 240 Repub­li­cans, with four vacant seats (two from each party).

Based on the Cook Polit­i­cal Report rank­ings, here’s a graphic show­ing the recent his­tor­i­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion of the House, and how the House races are cur­rently rated by Cook:

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Justice Deferred

3
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

Back in August, I told the tale of Anthony Makk, who was sched­uled to be deported to Aus­tralia that month. He was denied cit­i­zen­ship because his mar­riage to Brad­ford Wells, rec­og­nized by the state of Mass­a­chu­setts, is not rec­og­nized by the fed­eral gov­ern­ment. He was advised by sev­eral offi­cials to remain in the coun­try while an effort was under­way to restore his legal sta­tus, and fol­lowed that advice.

This week, he received a two-​​year stay of his depor­ta­tion. House Minor­ity Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-​​San Fran­cisco, CA) and Sen­a­tor Dianne Fein­stein (D-​​CA), both of whom rep­re­sent Wells in Con­gress, inter­vened on their behalf. Pelosi per­son­ally con­tacted Makk to deliver the news.

I’m heart­ened that Makk is not forced to choose among ille­gal res­i­dency, sep­a­ra­tion from his spouse, and under­tak­ing the same immi­gra­tion issues in Aus­tralia that he has gone through in the United States (by tak­ing Wells with him). Nonethe­less, I’m dis­ap­pointed that this is a one-​​off solu­tion that is merely a deferral.

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More Politics Over Principles

0
2 years ago
by Michael Weiss in

I, for one, am tired of politi­cians putting pol­i­tics ahead of the good of the coun­try. Con­gress had an oppor­tu­nity to extend unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits, and yet cyn­i­cally chose not to do it.

This time, how­ever, I’m not talk­ing about Repub­li­cans. I’m talk­ing about Democ­rats, who chose to use this as an oppor­tu­nity to set the nar­ra­tive, rather than doing what they osten­si­bly believe in.

While grand­stand­ing at the podium in favor of the leg­is­la­tion, House Demo­c­ra­tic lead­ers pushed the leg­is­la­tion through the fast track. Why? Because it requires two-​​thirds approval, and they knew they didn’t have the votes to get 275 yeas.

I don’t care what party is doing this. It’s cyn­i­cal, and it’s wrong. It’s lying to the Amer­i­can pub­lic, because this sleight of hand cre­ated the head­line nar­ra­tive that Repub­li­cans blocked the exten­sion of unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits. Tech­ni­cally, it’s true, but it’s as mis­lead­ing as claim­ing Nancy Pelosi was hid­ing the PPACA leg­is­la­tion from the public.

Repub­li­cans and Democ­rats usu­ally are play­ing dif­fer­ent games on the field. Yes­ter­day, the House Democ­rats played the Repub­li­can game. Is this what you want?

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The Worst Person in the World?

0
2 years ago
by Michael Weiss in
President George W. Bush and Speaker of the Ho...

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Nancy Pelosi has the high­est unfa­vor­able rat­ings of key politi­cians, accord­ing to a new Nate Sil­ver arti­cle. This really doesn’t come as a sur­prise to me, nor does it sur­prise Jonathan Allen and John Har­ris over at Politico.

I have three ques­tions for the fray.

  1. What do you think are the causes of the large unfa­vor­able numbers?
  2. How impor­tant do you think pub­lic favor­a­bil­ity num­bers are for a Con­gres­sional party leader?
  3. What, if any­thing, should be done in light of these poll numbers?
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Oh Sure, Blame the White Woman

0
2 years ago
by Michael Weiss in
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States Hou...

Image via Wikipedia

Nancy Pelosi is tak­ing some heat from fel­low Demo­c­rat Rep­re­sen­ta­tives for the loss of the House to the Republicans.

So, what do you think? Is it her fault? Would it have been worth it to keep the House but ditch the PPACA? Should she step aside and let some­one else take Minor­ity Leader?

Ed. Note: Pelosi has been elected as House Minor­ity Leader
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