4 ms·
> Most of a Congress reporter's job does not depend on having random encounters with members of Congress. So much for my fantasy of a reporter's life; press co
by forapurpose 8y ago
> Most of a Congress reporter's job does not depend on having random encounters with members of Congress.
So much for my fantasy of a reporter's life; press conferences and hearings sound boring. But I will nitpick a minor point:
> there's decent churn in Congress, making this more than a one-time or annual thing
I don't remember the rate at which incumbents are re-elected, but it's pretty damn high. Unfortunately, after you memorize them once, you'd only have to learn a few more at a time.
- Spooky23 8y agoThe House turns over a lot. The Senate is a different story, those guys fossilize.
- Retric 8y agoThis election the house will have 55 voluntary departures + 2 people resigned so far. Assuming ~90% get relegated which may be high that's easily ~100 new members. It varies quite a bit but 2010 for example was down to 85% that won their races.
- forapurpose 8y ago> The House turns over a lot. The Senate is a different story I respectfully refer the gentleperson from Spooky to the following: https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. They don't provide a number but eyeballing the chart, I think that number starts with a "9" over several decades, and is increasing. Here's an article that says it was around 96.6% in 2014;[0] it must be embarrassing to find yourself in the bottom 3.4 percent of any group. (It also says House members are reelected more often than Senate members.) [0] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/nov/11/facebook-posts/congress-has-11-approval-ratings-96-incumbent-re-e/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/nov/...