Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

The Congressional District Method

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One of the persisting oddities of the United States’ political system is the Electoral College, which is an representative body that exists only to elect the President of the United States. Each state has a number of electors equal to its combined congressional representation in the House of Representatives and Senate, and the District of Columbia also has three electors of its own. To be elected president without throwing the contest into the House, a candidate must receive a majority vote of the electors.

This system is established in Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The intent of the founders was that the Electoral College would be an elected body something like the House. The idea was that communities would choose a locally-trusted representative to use their best judgment to cast a vote for president. Those representatives would gather in the state capitols to cast their ballots and transmit them to Washington. In Federalist #68, Alexander Hamilton wrote that, “A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite [to choose a president].”

As a compromise, it was left to the states to decide how electors would be appointed. Most held the district-by-district elections that the founders envisioned, but some chose appointment by the state legislature.

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Rand Paul and What Could Have Been

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Senator Rand Paul
Senator Rand Paul

This should have been a conservatarian revolution.

The Republican Party is composed of three main wings. The first is the neoconservative ‘old guard,’ which has been the pragmatic, centrist, and unrelentingly dominant force in American right-wing politics for a long time. The second is the ‘tea party’ or, in older parlance, the ‘religious right,’ which is a kind of populist paleoconservatism that is rooted in traditional values and has relatively little patience for pragmatism or compromise. The third is the ‘conservatarian’ wing, which is made up of true-believers in limited government and strict constitutionalism, and whose members tend to lean toward at least some of the positions of the Libertarian Party.

There is a lot of overlap between these groups. Few Republicans, and even fewer conservative independents (like myself), fit cleanly into one wing or another. But I have always said that my views generally fall somewhere between the platforms of the Republican and Libertarian parties, and so conservatarian describes me better than almost any other political label. If I was a Republican, that is the wing I would likely find myself in.

Just one year ago, conservatarians seemed poised to wrest control of the Republican Party from the old guard. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), the poster-boy of Republican conservatarianism, was winning straw polls and seemed to be a real contender for the presidential nomination. Tried-and-true members of the old guard like former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) and Governor John Kasich (R-OH) failed to gain traction. Republicans seemed ready for a change in direction, and Paul seemed like he could be the beneficiary of the old guard’s impending fall.

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Cruise to New England and Canada 2016

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Melissa and I try to go on a cruise every-other year, but this year we broke our usual cadence and went on a cruise in two consecutive years. Following our 2015 cruise to Alaska, this year we went on a cruise to New England and Canada on Royal Caribbean’s MS Grandeur of the Seas from September 29 to October 8. Why did we break our cadence? Well, this cruise was organized by my Knights of Columbus council (and others) as a fund-raiser for KOVAR, which is a charity serving Virginians with intellectual disabilities. Sixteen couples went on the cruise, ourselves included, and a portion of our fare goes to KOVAR (about three thousand dollars in total).

The cruise was a nine-day round-trip out of Baltimore, Maryland, stopping along the way at ports in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Bar Harbor, Maine; Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This was our first time visiting any of those places. There were also three lovely, relaxing at-sea days, one at the beginning and two at the end.

It was overcast and a bit drizzly leaving Baltimore, and the same on our first at-sea day, and the same in Boston. It started the same in Portland, but got nicer as the day went on (though it was still pretty overcast). From then until the end of the cruise, the weather was sunny, lovely, and comfortable. I took a bunch of pictures, and we had a great time.

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President of the United States, 2016

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Seal of the President
Seal of the President

In the race for President of the United States, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) faces former Governor Gary Johnson (R-NM) (now a Libertarian) and real-estate mogul Donald Trump (R). Also on the Virginia ballot will be two minor candidates, Evan McMullin (I) and Doctor Jill Stein (G). Incumbent President Barack Obama (D) has reached his constitutional term limit and is not permitted to seek reelection.

The United States has a unique system for electing presidents, where the citizens of each of the fifty states (and the District of Columbia) vote for a slate of electors who are ‘pledged’ to a particular presidential candidate. Each state has a number of electors equal to the size of its total congressional delegation, counting both representatives and senators. The District of Columbia has three electors as well, which brings the total number of electors to 538.

Maine and Nebraska allot their electors based on the majority vote in each congressional district, with the remaining two electors chosen at-large based on the statewide vote. All other states and the District of Columbia allot their electors under a ‘winner take all’ system, where the winner of the statewide vote receives all of that state’s electors. The candidate who receives a majority vote of at least 270 electors wins the election.

If no candidate receives a majority vote, the House of Representatives is then called upon to choose a president by a ‘majority of the states’ vote. Presidents are elected to four-year terms, and may serve up-to two terms.

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U.S. House, VA-10th District, 2016

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Seal of the U.S. House of Representatives
Seal of the U.S. House

In the race to represent Virginia’s Tenth District in the United States House of Representatives, incumbent Representative Barbara Comstock (R-VA 10th) is seeking reelection and is challenged by LuAnn Bennett (D).

The Tenth District encompasses Clarke County, Frederick County, Loudoun County, the cities of Manassas and Winchester, and parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties. Comstock was first elected in 2014 and is nearing the end of her first term.

All seats in the House of Representatives are up for election every two years. There are 435 seats, representing each of the fifty states in rough proportion to their population as recorded in the most recent national census. There are an additional six non-voting delegate seats representing U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

The Republican Party currently holds a 247-186 majority over the Democratic Party in the House, and two seats are vacant. Virginia has eleven seats in the House, with eight held by Republicans and three held by Democrats.

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Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.