Originally Posted By disney pete Sorry to sound so dumb but can someone explain to me what the midterm elections are all about,weve been watching it on the news here in uk and im at a loss as to what it's about and what happens at the end,thanks in advance my american friends.
Originally Posted By hopemax Our House of Representatives has 2-year terms, and are elected in even-numbered years. The Senate has 6 year terms, but every 2 years 1/3 of the seats are elected. They are called "mid-terms" because it's the even-number year that is not also a Presidential election (4 year terms). So we are electing Presidents in 2012, 2016, 2020, etc so the mid-terms would be the 2014, 2018 elections. It is important, because in both Houses the Democrats have held the majority, so in theory it should make it easier to pass legislation. However, it is expected that the Republicans will take back the House of Representatives, and a small chance of the Senate. The party in power has the power to chair committees and thus control the agenda. So while the Democrats were pushing for Health care reform, financial reform, etc, the Republicans want votes on tax cuts, deregulation and investigations about the Obama administration, etc.
Originally Posted By friendofdd It is fairly simple, Pete. The President is elected every four years (in years divisible by four). Two years after his election, midway through the four year term we have an election in the administrations mid-term. All seats in the House of Representatives are up for election every two years, so they always run in both Presidential and mid-term years. Senators are elected for six year terms. so every two years, approximately one third of the one hundred seats are running for election. Currently, the House, Senate and Presidency are controlled by the Democrat Party. However, in recent decades, it is more common for the Congress (House and Senate) to be controlled by the opposite party as the President. That seems to be what will happen again with this mid-ter election.
Originally Posted By disney pete Thanks for the explanation guys im glad you think its easy to understand i had to read your both posts half a dozen times before it registered and its still quite a difficult thing to understand but at least i have a handle on it politics eh.
