Issue: Incumbency Incumbency: Elected officials in any political district would like to keep their jobs. The people of the district that elect an official may want to keep the person as their representative. This is especially true if the official has been elected to the seat many times. The more times someone is elected the more experience he or she develops on the job. This is referred to as seniority. Why does seniority matter? Representatives in Congress are assigned to committees that work on policy and lawmaking. The committees are divided further into subcommittees. Some committees have a great deal of influence such as The Ways and Means Committee, which determines how funds are allocated. Congressional committee appointments and chairmanships are based on party affiliation and experience, as well as knowledge of the committee's area of focus. The longer representatives are in Congress, the more likely they are to receive important committee assignments and to have influence in Congress for the good of their districts. If an elected Congressional representative loses their district through redistricting and is not re-elected in a newly designed district, the people of the district may not have a strong voice on matters which are important to them. Example: A Congressional Representative from an urban district vs. a rural district. If a district is mainly rural and agricultural, the representative of that district might wish to be on committees that have an impact on farming. If the rural district was eliminated through redistricting, it could be merged with a more urban district. In this case, the rural communities interest might not be as strongly represented because the majority of voters in the district would live in the urban areas. Example: As a result of redistricting, two districts are merged into one. Two incumbents live in the newly formed district. The two incumbents will have to run against each other in the next election. Redistricting can cut out an incumbent from his own district by drawing boundary lines that do not include the incumbent's home. < Previous Issue Next Issue >   Site Map | Discussion Board | NYcitizens.org | Contact | Interactive Maps | Home | Best if viewed in Netscape 4.75 / Internet Explorer 4.01 or later browser version. ©2002 WXXI Public Broadcasting Council