Introduction to U.S. National Politics

Chicago, IL: Member of Congress:

I currently live in Chicago, IL which means I am situated in Illinois’s Congressional District #4. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is a member of the Democratic Party as well as our US representative. He is a Mexican- born politician, he has been serving as our representative since January 3^rd, 2019.  Before that, he served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the Illinois State Senate and Chicago City Council. In 2015, he went against Rahm Emmanuel for Mayor of Chicago but unfortunately lost. He has been a part of our legislature since 1986 but has only been our member of Congress for a couple weeks, prior to him Luis Gutierrez was in office. I would say based on his previous election results he is in a safe seat. Unfortunately, during his run for Mayor he did not win but he did have a big support system from voter and endorsements. Bernie Sanders was one of the people that endorse him and his political beliefs as well as Luis Gutierrez after announcing his retirement from Congress. During his campaign for Member of Congress, he won 60% of the primary votes. I think being Hispanic really helps him relate to the minorities of our district. As far as him being member of any caucus, it has only been stated he will be joining the Congressional Progressive Caucus but nothing else has been stated. My district is very urban-rural, many immigrants for decades now have established themselves here but over the years under Mayor Rahm Emmanuel gentrification has been started to arise, condos are being made as well as supermarkets like Walmart and Target are being built as well as housing cost like Mortgage and rent are increasing. Out of 700, 585 residents in my district 479,290 are Hispanic/Latino. For the past couple of years, the democratic party has taken office.

State House Representative

 In this position, I am listed in a different district. Our state representative is Iris Martinez and she represents Illinois’s 20^th state senate district. She has been in this position since 2003, her election marked the first time a Hispanic woman had been elected to the state senate in Illinois history. Martinez is involved in the Illinois legislative Latino caucus, which she has given her a platform to give voice to initiatives that are important to minorities. She is involved in committees like Commerce and Economic Development, Education, Energy, and Public Utilities, Executive, Government Accountability/Pensions and Transportation. I do believe she has a safe seat, for the 2018 re-elections she had won 100% of the votes. Since 2003, she has continued to earn and maintain her position because of the voters’ favor towards her. Martinez has continuously used her position to advocate for affordable housing, expanding health care access and ensuring seniors and the disabled to given proper care. She is also a strong voice for children and has started an initiative that involves children receiving health check-ups, screening, dental check-ups, immunizations as well as backpacks. Since she represents one of Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods, she is a voice to a lot of minorities that are not given the same equal rights as everyone else.

As a constituent of Ohio’s 11^thcongressional district, I am represented by Marcia Fudge in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 11^thdistrict is comprised of a collection of suburbs surrounding the city of Cleveland, including both semi-rural and urban communities. Congresswoman Fudge surely realized the diversity among the district’s interests as she committed her talents to the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Military Family Caucus, Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, Congressional Diabetes Caucus, Northeast, and finally the Midwest Congressional Coalition. Additionally, the Congresswoman has dedicated her time within the House of Representatives to serve in the Committee on Agriculture; a salient topic to the rural communities of her district, as well as the entire state of Ohio. Congresswoman Fudge focuses her efforts on conservation and nutrition which is viewed as an extension to the Congresswoman’s fight against poverty within the 11^thdistrict. She also serves as a member of the House’s Committee on Education and the Workforce. The Congresswoman has tactfully positioned herself amid the issues of “Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education,” as well as “Workforce Protections” within this committee. Here, she is equipped with the resources to alleviate systematic inequities that have led to evident educational dichotomies in the 11^thdistrict. Fudge believes that combating resource inequality at an early stage can enhance educational experience and economic growth. In reflection of this belief, Fudge has ensured her participation on issues surrounding educational growth by introducing bills such as H.R. 193 (Core Opportunity Resources for Equity and Excellence Act), as well as supporting congressional acts within the agricultural sector that support her platform on nutrition. Support for the Congresswoman is evident by her tenure within the legislature. Congresswoman Fudge has been representing the 11^thDistrict since 2008 and is expected to maintain her standing with the House considering her constituencies continual Democratic tendencies.

More locally, I am represented by Janine R. Boyd in the Ohio House of Representatives. Representative Boyd, a Democrat, has been serving within this position since 2015, winning by a considerable margin. In 2017, Representative Boyd worked as a member of the Committee on Aging and Long Term Care, the Committee on Community and Family Advancement, the Committee on State and Local Government, and finally the Committee on Ways and Means. Generally, Representative Boyd strives to implement state-level policies paralleled with those supported by Congresswoman Fudge. Included within this endeavor is viewing education as an avenue for an enhanced workforce, as well as crafting comprehensive healthcare initiatives. Recently, Representative Boyd’s work reflects a commitment to debasing legislation that perpetuates gender inequity, and fostering action that supports immigrant communities.

My member of Congress is Matt Cartwright.  He is the Democratic representative from Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District.  He previously served as the representative for Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District from 2013 to 2018, serving 3 terms.  He was elected into office on November 6, 2018, serving his first term as the representative from the 8th Congressional District, and he is up for reelection in 2020 (Ballotpedia).  Cartwright won 54.6% of the votes, defeating the Republican candidate, John Crin, who received 45.4% of the votes.  Cartwright serves on several committees.  He serves on the Committee if Appropriations, along with its subcommittees: Subcommittee in Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies and the Subcommittee in Financial Services and General Government.  He is also a member of a lot of caucuses.  Some of these include the Democratic Caucus, Adult Literacy Caucus, Animal Protection Caucus, LGBT Equality Caucus, Childhood Cancer Caucus, Cybersecurity Caucus, Clean Water Caucus, Public Service Caucus, and many others that reflect upon issues of his interests (cartwright.house.gov).  Cartwright is committed to working across the aisle to advocate for working families.  He has introduced over 60 pieces of legislation and more bipartisan bills than any other House Democrat.  His priorities are creating jobs, ensuring quality health care, strengthening the middle class, protecting seniors, supporting veterans and military families, and his campaign themes were equality, defense, infrastructure, economy, and environment (cartwright.house.gov).

The representative from the 16th District of Ohio is Republican, Anthony Gonzalez.  The district is rural and includes some suburbs of Cleveland.  Important issues to Gonzalez include National Security, Education and the Workforce, Jobs and the Economy, Immigration, Federal Spending, and Veterans (gonzalez.house.gov).  His focus on these issues somewhat reflect upon the characteristics of his district, as he focuses on jobs for American projects and strengthening the economy, but also more national issues such as federal spending, national security, and immigration.  The racial demographics of the district are relatively racially homogenous.  Racially, the district is 94.3% White, 2.0% Asian, and 1.6% Black, and ethnically, it is 2.0% Hispanic (Ballotpedia).

My State House Representative is Jack Rader Jr. of the 176th District of Pennsylvania.  He is a Republican and has been serving as a member of the House since 2015.  In the most recent election, Rader defeated Claudette Williams, a Democrat, 54.7% to 45.3% (Ballotpedia).  His committee assignments are Children & Youth, Finance, Local Government, and Tourism & Recreational Development, but no caucuses were listed.  His focus includes eliminating property tax, promoting economic growth and job creation, reducing government involvement in everyday life, and supporting a balanced budget.  The district is rural and agricultural in some areas.  These characteristics of the district are not directly reflected in the issues focused on by our representative, but some of the areas of focus may overlap onto these characterisitcs.  The area is 51% female, and the demographics for race and ethnicity are 73% White, 10% Black, 1% Asian, and 14% Hispanic (censusreporter.org).  In some areas it may seem diverse, but for the most part, the district is racially homogenous.

In New York’s state legislature, the Democrats are in control.  Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is the Governor of New York.  The Speaker of the House and Senate Leader, both Democrats, are Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, respectively.  The minority party leaders, obviously Republicans, are John Flanagan of the Senate and Brian Koll of the House.  Seeing that Democrats have control in Albany, it is fair to say that New York does not have a divided government.  “On Election Day, Democrats won an impressive majority in the chamber, putting them in control of both houses for the first time in years” (City & State).  In the 2018 elections, Democrats expanded their majority for the New York Senate and gained control of the chamber.  As all the 63 Senate seats were up for grabs, the Democrats won 40 seats, while the Republicans won 23 seats.  “At the time of the election, Democrats held 32 seats to Republicans’ 31.  However, Republicans controlled the chamber, as one Democratic state senator caucused with the Republican Party” (Ballotpedia).  The legislative process will be considerably different, and there are several bills on the table to possibly reach the governor, and maybe even get signed.  Some of the top bills that will be discussed in 2019 include issues such as, housing, criminal justice/ gun violence, education, health care, infrastructure, energy and environment, and several bills could return to the table.  These returning bills include issues and bills on sports betting, DREAM Act, voting reforms, LLC loopholes, and speed cameras, all of which if passed would have serious effects on the state (City & State).  One bill has been reviewed so far in 2019.  The Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act is “an act to amend the insurance law and the social services law, in relation to requiring health insurance policies to include coverage of all FDA approved contraceptive drugs, devices, and products” (Program Bill #1).  My state house representative is Jack Rader, a Republican, and my state senate representative is Mario Scavello, also Republican.  They are the representatives of the 176th and 40th Districts of Pennsylvania, respectively.  Scavello pushes for support and action on several issues, such as school property tax reform, transportation infrastructure investment, economic development, and tourism promotion.  He mainly would like to shift school funding away from the burdensome school property tax (senatorscavello.com).  Jack Rader focuses on similar issues.  He would like to eliminate the property tax and reduce government involvement in everyday life.  He also promotes economic growth and job creation and supports a balanced budget (jackrader.com).  Generally, their position on most of the issues facing Pennsylvania line up with mine.  

Alaska

Part 1: A

The current governor of Alaska is Mike Dunleavy. He is a republican who defeated democrat March Begich during the 2018 gubernatorial election. There is a discourse going on about who the speaker of the house will be for Alaska. The nominee was a Republican named David Talerico, who just yesterday (Kitchenman, 2019) was one vote short of becoming the speaker of the house. No secondary election has yet been announced. The president of the Alaska Senate is Republican Cathy Giessel and the Senate Majority leader is Mia Costello, also a Republican. There are 20 seats in the Alaskan senate. 13 are held by Republicans and 7 are held by the Democrats. There are 40 seats in the House of Representatives, 16 are Democratic, 23 are Republican and 1 is independent. In both cases, the majorities are Republican. This is conducive to an active and achievable legislative agenda, especially under the leadership of a Republican governor. The unity in the state of Alaska behind the Republican party should lead to success for the state legislature.

Part 1:B

The state legislature has placed a few key issues for the upcoming weeks. The Senate Finance Committee  met the 24th of January to reconcile issues with the Alaskan Oil and Gas commision, Census accuracy issues, Labor and workforce development (W3.akleg.gov, 2019). In his state of the Senate address, Mike Dunleavy outlined his agenda as governor: He called for a war on criminals, balance the budget, protect private investment security, create jobs and grow the economy, and restore trust in elected government officials (Remarks, 2019). These goals are outlined by the Juneau tribune in just their top 3 stories for Jan. 23rd (Juneau Empire, 2019). Alaska is looking to fix its budget, to which a deficient of 1.6 Billion dollars that was found in the initial budget proposed by Mike Dunleavy. Another concern was the 4 new crime bills that are the initial steps in the war on crime. Under a unified Republican government, the legislature of Alaska should have little issue in enacting its policies.

Part 2:A

The Ohio Senator who represents me is Steve Wilson and the Representative is Tom Brinkman. Steve Wilson was assigned to a committee for Education, Insurance and Financial institutions, Public safety, and the Ways and Means committee. He voted to ban abortions after the detection of a heartbeat. He established a database for violent offenders and was endorsed by the NRA. Tom Brinkman Jr. also voted for the bill that prohibits abortion after a heartbeat. He also amended education laws for primary schools, and signed a bill that prevents the coercion of marriage ceremonies against the beliefs of a licensed minister. Overall these two statesmen do represent my well. Both align with the Republican party which is the avenue for conservative ideals that I believe in. Specifically relating to abortion, gun laws and religious freedom.

 

Works Cited

Juneau Empire. (2019). Alaska Legislature | Juneau Empire. [online] Available at: https://www.juneauempire.com/tag/alaska-legislature/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2019].

 

W3.akleg.gov. (2019). Alaska State Legislature. [online] Available at: http://w3.akleg.gov/index.php?tab2#tab2 [Accessed 25 Jan. 2019].

 

Remarks, S. (2019). 2019 State of the State Address – Michael J. Dunleavy. [online] Gov.alaska.gov. Available at: https://gov.alaska.gov/newsroom/2019/01/22/2019-state-of-the-state-address/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2019].

 

Maryland’s 62^nd Governor is Larry Hogan, a Republican from Anne Arundel County. An incumbent, Hogan campaigned recently on his popular status as a bipartisan governor, as evidenced by his success in passing legislation in Maryland’s House of Delegates that contained provisions appealing to both Republicans and Democrats. The 141-member House of Delegates is the “lower” chamber of the General Assembly, which is Maryland’s bicameral legislature; the “upper” is the State Senate, with a membership of 47 Senators. The Senate leader is Thomas Mike Miller Jr., a Democrat. The Democratic party has the majority in the Senate, and their leader is Douglas Peters. The Senatorial minority leader, representing the Republican party, is J.B. Jennings. Like the Senate, the House is controlled by Democrats. The majority leader is Kathleen Dumais, and the Republican minority leader is Nicholaus Ripke. Maryland’s legislative body is currently a divided government, with a Republican Governor but a Democratic-led General Assembly. Politically, Maryland is a more liberal state that typically votes for Democrats in both state and national elections. Unsurprisingly, the Democrats have a considerable margin over their Republican counterparts. There are 32 Democratic seats in the Senate, to 15 Republican seats. As for the House, 99 seats are held by Democrats while 42 are held by Republicans. Nonetheless, Governor Hogan’s bipartisan efforts often override the polarizing forces of either party, and his Republican membership ensures that their political interests are fairly represented in legislation. Both parties have been able to pass party-approved bills under Hogan.

One of the major legislative goals that will be prevalent in the opening session of 2019 is the effort to override Governor Hogan’s veto on a bill requiring Maryland employers to provide sick leave to their employees. If and when this override occurs (which it likely will, as pundits have predicted), the next question will be to determine what shape the specifics of a sick leave bill would take. The Democratic leadership has made it evident that they consider themselves the vanguards of this portion of the agenda. Maryland must also choose how it will respond to tax cuts enacted by the Trump administration, and if it will follow or oppose this trend for state-level taxes. Additionally, federal legislation has created an array of complex issues in the field of health care that the state has to navigate carefully. Namely, the removal of the individual mandate created by the Affordable Care Act under President Obama, the halting of cost-sharing reduction payments, and low levels of funding for CHIP have forced the legislature to act decisively in order to ensure that many Marylanders remain effectively covered for their medical expenses. Finally, the Governor and General Assembly will be considering the legal status of medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is currently legal in the state, but it remains divisive on both sides of the aisle as to how and to what degree cannabis for medical purposes should be legally controlled, if at all.

I reside in Maryland’s 4^th District for state-level elections. My representative in the State Senate is Michael Hough, a Republican. According to his official website (https://senatorhough.com/), Hough “believes in the founding principles of our country; limited government, individual responsibility, and lower taxes.” He supports lenient and reformist justice for non-violent criminals, while increasing penalties for violent offenders. He stands for the protection of property rights from the government and supports Americans’ Second Amendment rights. He is considered one of the most conservative state senators in Maryland by some sources. Based on this information, I would say that he represents me well, although I would prefer that he take a greater stand for environmental protection. As for the House of Representatives, Jesse Pippy and Dan Cox represent District 4, and both of them are Republicans. Pippy’s main focal point in the House is on modernizing Maryland’s economic structure with market capitalism aligned towards small businesses. He tends to take a moderate Evangelical-conservative position on most other issues (https://jessepippy.com/). Dan Cox makes his stances clear on all pivotal issues: the right to life, Second Amendment rights and other defenses from government overreach, property rights, thorough border security and deportation of illegal immigrants, and galvanizing the rights of farmers. Both of these Senators represent me well and likely most of their overwhelmingly rural constituency; I especially appreciate Cox’s commitment to protecting the food supply and ensuring that farmers can remain afloat, even in tough economic circumstances.

 

Table of Consultations

https://senatorhough.com/ (2)

https://jessepippy.com/ (3)