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political experts, inform me on this.

Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
edited May 2008 in Strut Central
I'm not really into politics and I don't keep up on the ins and outs of how it all works, so can someone break this down for me. How does a person who is elected to a position continue to do their job when they spend over a year campaigning? Don't they still have responsibilities in their current positions? I would love it if my job allowed me all the time I needed to go out and find a better job.I'm serious about this. How does this work? If there is a meeting on Friday and the debates happen to be that same day, what happens? It seems so silly, especially for the president. You get to spend half of your term campaigning for another term.

  Comments

  • young_creamyoung_cream 540 Posts
    good point. interesting to hear this, especially because a lot of the ones sitting out of their jobs (other positions) are the ones talking about all their "experience" benefits
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Just one of the ways that the system sucks.

    There are congressional reps who sit out a year even when they are not campaigning. For those who work hard it's every waking hour. For others it's just favors and power.

    I live on the West Coast. How is my representative supposed to keep in touch with us and still work in Washington. If they move their family to DC, what do they care about our schools, roads, ports, farmers, cities? There is many a Senator who only go "home" when they are campaigning. The longer they have been in DC the less campaigning they need to do.
  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    I'm not really into politics and I don't keep up on the ins and outs of how it all works, so can someone break this down for me.

    How does a person who is elected to a position continue to do their job when they spend over a year campaigning? Don't they still have responsibilities in their current positions? I would love it if my job allowed me all the time I needed to go out and find a better job.

    I'm serious about this. How does this work? If there is a meeting on Friday and the debates happen to be that same day, what happens?

    It seems so silly, especially for the president. You get to spend half of your term campaigning for another term.

    Obama actually voted in the Senate today (before going out to campaign in MO).
  • street_muzikstreet_muzik 3,919 Posts
    So did Hillary.
  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    Many pols have relatively safe seats and only campaign enough make the appearance of engaging the electorate. In fact, my rep and Lasrewolf's too, has a seat for life. He spends a lot time raising money and accruing favors from other less safe congressional pols. Consequently, he gets a lot of good things done. I ran into his son the other day, a guy I grew up with. I asked him why he wasn't running for senate against a very vulnerable Repub here in Oregon and he simply said his dad wasn't willing to spend the rest of the term raising money and campaigning. Understandable I guess. Too bad cause he would have won I think.
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