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US Presidential Election 2008 - Please! Let Us Know What's Important To YOU...CLICK HERE! - To Share Your Opinions With EVERYONE! YOU - Are The Reason We Are Here - So Let Us Know What You Think!
WASHINGTON - The Presidential Elections Vs. The Mid-Term Elections: The elections are called mid-terms because they come half-way through the four-year term served by the president, though the polls are in fact for Congress - the two houses of the US legislature. This time, there are also races for 36 of the 50 state governorships, known as gubernatorial elections. In Congress, all 435 members of the House of Representatives face the voters, as they do every two years. But only one third of the 100 members of the Senate are up for election at any one time. That translates into 33 seats this year - 17 held by Democrats, 15 by Republicans and one by a retiring independent. Why not elect everybody at the same time? The American system was designed to be overlapping both in terms of the powers of the different bodies and in terms of when people are elected to them. The House of Representatives is the larger of the two Houses of Congress. It was set up as a popular body with the number of members tied to the size of the population. The idea was for it to directly and quickly reflect the public mood, which is why the members face election every two years. The Senate was planned as a more reflective body and each state has two senators regardless of its size. Senators serve for six years. Every two years, one third of them face re-election. Why are the mid-terms important? At stake is control of Congress, the legislative branch of the US Government. Republicans have controlled both chambers since 1994, except for a brief time when Democrats held the Senate. CONGRESS BALANCE OF POWER 100 seats - 33 to be contested in mid-terms At first glance, the Republicans face a discouraging political landscape: on the defensive over corruption scandals and a former Congressman's sexually explicit e-mails, and with President Bush weaker in the opinion polls than he was a year ago. But while the general picture may favour the Democrats, much could change before the elections in November and the local realities of many races - like the advantage incumbents have - could give Republicans the upper hand as they try to hold on to their majorities. In the House, Republicans hold 231 seats, the Democrats 201 with one Democrat-leaning independent and two vacancies. In the Senate, Republicans hold 55 seats to the Democrats' 44, with one Democrat-leaning independent. What are the key races? The races that loom largest will be those where the chances of an upset are viewed to be greatest. Trends suggest it is not easy to beat a sitting member - an incumbent - making it difficult for the Democrats to gain ground. A number of US pundits are suggesting that only a few dozen races will be genuinely competitive.
The impact of the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal may affect some races. In Montana, Republican Senator Conrad Burns has been running ads insisting he was not influenced by the disgraced lobbyist The resignation of House Republican Mark Foley over an e-mail sex scandal has created an unlikely contest in Florida. Joe Negron has been picked in his place - but it was too late to replace Mr Foley's name with his on the ballot. Democrat Tim Mahoney may reap the benefit All eyes will be on Ohio, the big swing state of 2004, where corruption scandals have implicated House Republican Robert Ney - forcing him to step aside - and Governor Bob Taft. Polls show Senator Mike DeWine neck-and-neck with Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown Scandal-hit former House majority leader Tom DeLay withdrew his bid for re-election in Texas's 22nd district saying he could not risk his seat falling to the Democrats. Courts have ruled he cannot withdraw his name from the ballot, forcing the Republicans to ask voters to write in the name of replacement Shelley Sekula-Gibbs instead The race in Connecticut has become a three-way battle after Senator Joe Lieberman decided to stand as an independent. His loss in the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont was widely seen as an expression of anti-Iraq war feeling. He may attract some Republican support Is incumbency a big factor? Like incumbent presidents, sitting members of the two houses stand a strong chance of re-election and there are no federal limits on length of tenure. Robert Carlyle Byrd (Democrat), for example, has been a senator in West Virginia since 1958 while the traditional re-election rate for House of Representatives members is more than 90%. Apart from the advantage of voter recognition, incumbents across the parties appear to enjoy a clear fundraising advantage. Sitting members of the House of Representatives net more campaign funds than their challengers by a factor of 7:2 while senators have a 4:1 advantage, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. Business interests account for about three-quarters of all contributions, the centre says.
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