[EL] winning in Congress but not living in the district

Sun Feb 26 09:15:19 PST 2012

In these times of evaluating scholarship by SSRN downloads (hint, hint), I suppose I should have given the SSRN link to my article, instead of the Penn State link: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1262520.

Best,
Mark

Mark S. Scarberry
Professor of Law
Pepperdine Univ. School of Law

From: Scarberry, Mark
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 8:41 AM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Cc: 'Chris DeRose'
Subject: RE: [EL] winning in Congress but not living in the district

On a slightly different note, the Virginia legislature adopted an unconstitutional district residency requirement and gerrymandered the districts, at least in part to keep Madison out of Congress. He respected the residency requirement (though he thought it was unconstitutional) and thus was not able to run in a safe federalist district. Instead he had to run in a much more difficult district that included his home county, Orange County. Madison defeated Monroe 1,308 to 972. I talk about this it in my article on John Leland and James Madison:

"The Virginia elections for the federal House of Representatives were set for February 2, 1789; to ensure Madison's defeat, the Virginia legislature created a gerrymandered Congressional district that included Madison's home county, Orange, along with several heavily antifederalist counties.[fn234] To prevent Madison from running in a different, safer district, the Virginia legislature created a one-year district residency requirement (recognized at the time as likely unconstitutional[fn235]) for House candidates.[fn236] (Madison chose to honor that requirement and run in his home district, rather than in a more hospitable district, apparently to avoid a fight over the constitutionality of the residency law and to avoid the 'question . . . whether he was elected legitimately.'[fn237])"

http://pennstatelawreview.org/articles/113%20Penn%20St.%20L.%20Rev.%20733.pdf.

It is likely, as I discuss in my article, that the support of Baptist minister John Leland was critical to Madison's victory. This might make us at least question whether the prohibition on church involvement in elections is altogether salutary .

One of my former students, Chris DeRose,  has written a book on the Madison-Monroe election that has gotten good reviews, including from Larry Sabato. The title is Founding Rivals Madison vs. Monroe, The Bill of Rights, and The Election that Saved a Nation. I haven't yet read it - it's on the top of my books-to-read pile - but here is the link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Founding-Rivals-Madison-Monroe-Election/dp/159698192X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top. (It doesn't hurt that he cited my article!)

Mark S. Scarberry
Professor of Law
Pepperdine Univ. School of Law

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu]<mailto:[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu]> On Behalf Of Rob Richie
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 6:22 AM
To: David A. Schultz
Cc: law-election at uci.edu<mailto:law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] winning in Congress but not living in the district

Running for a district one doesn't live in initially is a relatively common phenomenon, especially in a post-redistricting year. Here is a link to a story from the Baltimore Sun from last month that indicate at least eight US House candidates in Maryland's congressional primaries this April don't have a residence in the district where they're running -- a product tied in large part to a particularly "creative" new map drawn last year.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-01-15/news/bs-md-candidates-address-20120115_1_candidate-filings-8th-district-1st-district

To me, suggesting it matters whether one lives in a district of some 700,000 people is an attempt to maintain the general fiction that single-member districts have any real meaningful as units of representation despite the fact that we know that districts rarely are drawn with community coherence utmost in mind. II's just like no one seems to complain that the Winnipeg Jets (in Canada) are contending for the "Southeastern Division" in the National Hockey League, while the Nashville Predators are in the "Central Division". It's just setting up rules that are convenient.

Candidates and certainly winners of course also can establish temporary residences quickly -- I'm sure Michele Bachmann will find a way in Minnesota, just a Hillary Clinton did in shifting to New York State when she won her US Senate seat in 2006.

As a related aside, the 1842 federal mandate to use single-member districts was controversial when first passed (John Tyler signed it under protest, and a couple states successfully defied it that year) and it has come and gone over the years. It wasn't in place for almost four decades in the 20th century -- until the 1967 restoration of the mandate that forced New Mexico and Hawaii to go from at-large elections to districts. We have some history posted here:
http://archive.fairvote.org/library/history/flores/index.html

- Rob Richie

On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 8:51 AM, David A. Schultz <dschultz at gw.hamline.edu<mailto:dschultz at gw.hamline.edu>> wrote:
Can anyone give me an example of any individual successfully winning a seat in Congress yet not living within that district?  In the alternative, does anyone have examples of individuals running for Congress while living outside of it borders?

To the best of my knowledge I cannot find an example dating all the way back to 1842 when Congress mandated single-member districts for Congress.

Thank you.
David Schultz, Professor
Editor, Journal of Public Affairs Education (JPAE)
Hamline University
School of Business
570 Asbury Street
Suite 308
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
651.523.2858<tel:651.523.2858> (voice)
651.523.3098<tel:651.523.3098> (fax)
http://davidschultz.efoliomn.com/
http://works.bepress.com/david_schultz/
http://schultzstake.blogspot.com/

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