The slug on a New York Times editorial calling for California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to act gave me the giggles: “Senate seats are not lifetime sinecures”. I could only wonder why they would print something so easily falsifiable.
The average age of a U. S. senator is 65. Average, mind you. The majority of senators are either Baby Boomers or Silent Generation which is to say they are over 58. To the best of my knowledge there is one Millennial in the Senate and a relative handful of Gen Xers.
I believe that at 89 Sen. Feinstein is the oldest sitting senator, a few months older than Chuck Grassley, also 89. She has served since 1992; she’s presently serving in her sixteenth Congress.
That’s the norm in the Senate. Once elected you tend to be re-elected until you resign or die. If that’s not a lifetime sinecure I’m not sure how else you’d describe it.
The data is mixed on that assertion.
Reelection rates for Senators (80-85%) are somewhat lower than for Congressmen / Congresswomen (90-95%), according to OpenSecrets (https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/reelection-rates). I suspect its because Senators “district” lines cannot be changed.
But Senators are elected to 6 years vs the House’s 2 year terms — so the simplest models imply the average Senator would be in office for about 20 years.
Evidently, the voters like to reelect people, even senile people. If so, what’s the problem?
Unless, of course, elections routinely stolen, and the electees are merely appointed by the Ruling Caste. But that doesn’t happen, does it?
The VERY slightly lower re-election rate for the Senate vice the House is misleading for two reasons:
1. Senators are older to start out with.
2. They serve six year terms.
There are three reasons a senator may fail to be re-elected:
– they die
– they retire
– they’re defeated
Nonetheless they’re overwhelmingly re-elected.
Its actually a somewhat important point I think. Congressional districts are so gerrymandered that its hard for the part in control to lose in the general. This has lead to more polarization and radicalization in the parties ie your risk of not getting re-elected is losing to a member of your own party. For senators there are a number of purple states where the winning margin is often pretty small. In those states your risk is losing to the other party. You can still get primaried, but when an extreme candidate wins a primary they are then very vulnerable in the general. Saw that in PA with the senate and governor and happened in other states.
Of course the safest political position is that of federal judge. There are almost no limits on judicial behavior or competence and not a thing the voters can do about it.
Steve