Mike's blog

The Senate is the upper house of Congress. Each state has two senators that serve six year terms with 1/3 of them up every 2 years. No more than one seat per state can be up for election in any given election and no fewer than 33 total nor more than 34 total. The Vice President has the tie breaking vote as the head of Congress. The senate has the power to approve or block most presidential nominees even for the Supreme Court and the Cabinet. They can block any bill that passes the house. They can pass laws subject to approval to the house except for the spending bills and taxes. They can approve or reject the houses spending bill and tax bill and can also amend the bills. The most senior member of the majority party by tradition gets elected the president pro temper of the senate. He along with the vice president co-chairs the senate and he picks the chairman when neither are presiding. He is the 3rd most ranking member of congress after the Vice president and the Speaker of the Ho...

If the Republicans keep the house then they will be able to push Trumps agenda through for the next 2 years. They will be able to stop any indictments on the president and control the budget proposal process. The president and the house propose the budget and the senate can only amend the budget and tax bills. The Republicans will be able to elect the next house Speaker and control key committees. If the Democrats take the house they will be able to take control over the investigation of the president and can even indict him if there is probable cause and start the impeachment process. They will pick the next speaker and control the house committees. They will be able to block any bill that passes the Senate and counter the Presidents budget and tax proposal with one of there own. They will have a say in anything that passes the federal government and it will give them a platform to run on in 2020 for they will have say in every new federal law. The congressional election will b...

In 1998 there was a very contested midterm election. It came out that the President had cheated on his wife and stretched the law to the breaking point to cover it up. The opposition party had the majority in both the house and the senate. They called a special council investigating the President. The special council was originally investigating a different matter. The House of Representatives started the impeachment process right before the midterm elections by indicting the president. The president's minority party said that it was a "witch hunt" and unjust. Many of the leaders in congress today were in congress or running for office during this critical election.  That party lost the popular vote and almost lost control over both the house and the senate. The President said that the people vindicated him in the election but the other party said that it was not the case because they had kept the majority by a few seats even though they lost the popular vote and m...

There are now 70 days to go until the midterm elections. That means that in 10 weeks America will vote. Next week after the Labor day holiday the election will kick into high gear and both parties will be trying to win votes. What happens in August will matter little what happens in September and October will decide who wins the election. Right now the Republicans control everything. They control the House, Senate, Supreme Court, Presidency, and a majority of state, county, and local governments nationwide. The Democrats only control large cities and a few counties and big states like New York. The Republicans will not have as much power as they have now after the midterms unless they win in November like they did in both 2014 and 2016. After next week what happens will be under intense media scrutiny as the election season kicks off. If they lose the election the house, senate, and state officials would be lame ducks. This could lead to a week of controversial decisions for the presid...

3rd Party Candidate Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party is surging in the New Mexico senate race. He is now in 2nd place and ahead of the Republican candidate. If he wins the race then it could prevent either party form getting a majority. Who knows what will happen then. That is unlikely though because he does have some strange views. For example he wants to allow the crashing of red lights so long as no other car is around. Basically he wants straight on red and left on red and to turn red lights into just stop signs.

Today instead of talking about politics I will talk about something more serious. A Category 4 Hurricane called Lane  is heading right towards the state of Hawaii. It looks like it might make landfall with they eye hitting Honolulu or Maui. Hopefully the eye does not make landfall but even if that does not happen there will still be damage as can be seen by the photo. What is going on with the weather lately?

Incumbents almost always win re-election in congress. They win win over 80% of the time. This is true for both the primary and general election. The seats that see the biggest change is open seats. Open seats are races where there are no incumbents running for office. These are the races to watch out for in 2018.