POL 1133 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Texas Legislature
Document Summary
Yes: make law, represent, appropriations, checks powers of other. No: doesn"t mirror our society incumbency; doesn"t seem to check its own power. Nonprofessional legislature: not full-time job (grange influenced) /day when legislature is in session (per diem) Up to 12 days/month when not in session. In total, compensation would actually be about ,200/year. After 8 years in the tx legislature, can receive up to (approx. ) Percentage of women and minorities are much smaller than the demographic % of our state. 3 types of gerrymandering: packing, cracking, stacking. Packing- ramming many voters of one party into a district to dilute their votes in other districts. Cracking- tearing up dense pockets of party voters to dilute their votes in that district. Stacking- merging 2 districts of the same party to force incumbents to run against each other. Those with the gold make the rules. Speaker appoints half of all committee seats and also designates the chair.
