1. During the current Congress, Republican John McCain voted with the Republican Party position how much of the time? (a) 50.1%, (b) 76.5%, (c) 88.3%.
2. Republican John McCain recently was the beneficiary of a big fundraiser in Utah. Who was there who didn’t want to be photographed by the press? (a) Republicans George Bush and Mitt Romney, (b) Oprah Winfrey, (c) Tom Hanks.
3. Which party’s Presidential candidate thinks the solution to the national health care crisis is to “harness competition”: (a) Democratic, (b) Republican.
4. Which candidate says that the Bush tax cuts for the rich should be preserved? (a) Democrat, (b) Republican.
5. Since 1981—a generation ago—how many Democrats have been President? (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3.
6. One political party is responsible for the creation of Medicare—the other fought against it. Which party brought about a radical improvement in health for seniors? (a) Democratic, (b) Republican.
7. Which Presidents were the youngest in American history? (a) Alexander Hamilton, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, (b) Teddy Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, (c) Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, John Kennedy.
8. Which President led the country during its longest peace-time economic expansion? (a) Republican George H. W. Bush, (b) Democrat Bill Clinton, (c) Republican George W. Bush.
9. Which party’s President led the formation of the United Nations? (a) Democratic, (b) Republican.
10. Under which administration has the Environmental Protection Agency prevented California from enforcing tougher emissions limits on vehicles? (a) Democratic, (b) Republican.
11. Two states near Massachusetts are considered “battleground states” in this year’s Presidential election. Which are they? (a) Maine and New Jersey, (b) New Hampshire and Maine, (c) New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
12. Which state voted for the Republican nominee in the last four Presidential elections but is considered a battleground state this year? (a) South Carolina, (b) Kentucky, (c) Virginia, (d) Wyoming.
13. Who, first elected to the Senate in 1962, has worked steadfastly for the whole nation’s Common Good?

Answers:

1. (c) Republican McCain voted with the Republican Party 88.3% of the time (not counting occasions he didn’t vote).
2. (a) Republicans Bush and Romney are helping McCain raise money, because they know that he agrees with them on the core values of the Republican Party.
3. (b) Republican McCain says that private-sector “competition” is the solution to the country’s health care crisis and, in true Republican fashion, professes to believe that the involvement of the federal government would increase “bureaucracy” and costs. The truth is that Medicare, a federal program, has very low administrative costs and imposes less “bureaucracy” than private-sector health plans.
4. (b) Republican McCain is in favor of continuing Bush’s tax cuts for the very rich. Democrats Clinton and Obama are on record for repealing tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000.
5. (a) There has been one Democratic President since 1981. Bill Clinton was in office from 1993 to 2001. All the other Presidents since 1981 have been Republicans: Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush.
6. (a) Medicare is the result of the Democratic Party’s efforts. It was enacted in 1965, when Democrat Lyndon Johnson was elected President in a landslide and the Senate and House of Representatives had a Democratic majority. Most Republican Senators argued against Medicare, calling it “socialized medicine.”
7. (b) Age at the beginning of first term: 42, Teddy Roosevelt; 43, John Kennedy; 46, Bill Clinton.
8. (b) Democrat Bill Clinton presided over the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history. He also balanced the federal budget and left office with a federal surplus.
9. (a) Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt and his successor, Democratic President Harry Truman, were instrumental in the creation of the United Nations.
10. (b) Under Republican President George W. Bush, the EPA has ordered California not to tighten its vehicle emissions limits.
11. (c) Pennsylvania and New Hampshire both voted Democratic in 2004 but are considered battleground in 2008—that is, they might vote Republican for President this year.
12. (c) Virginia. Although it has a long history of voting for Republicans as President, many analysts believe that the Democratic nominee has a chance this year. Virginia has had a Democratic governor since 2002, and the Democratic candidate for Senate, Mark Warner, is currently leading in the polls.
13. Democrat Ted Kennedy.

In Massachusetts, the Presidential Primary is scheduled for March 4, 2008, less than six months from now. By then it may even be possible to predict who will have enough votes at the parties’ national conventions to be on the Presidential ballot. The Democratic convention is scheduled for late August in Denver; the Republican convention, a few days later in St. Paul.

Next November voters will choose a President and all members of the House of Representatives. Thirty-four  Senators will be elected.

Let’s get ready for the 2008 election year with a political quiz.

1. Is the candidate with the most votes the person who gets elected President?
2. How many electoral votes does Massachusetts have?
3. What are some similarities in how Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming affect national politics?
4. What do Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico and Virginia have in common?
5. How many votes are needed in the Senate to override a presidential veto?
6. How many seats are in the House of Representatives?
7. How many votes does it take to override a Presidential veto in the House?
8. How many states have an all-Democratic delegation in the House? (a) six, (b) ten, (c) fifteen.
9. How many seats will Democrats have in the House after the 2008 election?
10. Extra credit: List ten reasons why the next President should  be a Democrat and why Democrats should gain seats in the House and Senate.

Answers:
1. Not necessarily. The president is chosen through electoral college votes.  Remember that in 2000 Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote. Whether he should have been declared the winner of the electoral vote depends on how Florida voted and whether the Supreme Court made a fair decision about Florida’s ballots.
2. Twelve. The number of electoral votes allocated to each state is determined by adding the number of Representative and Senate seats. Massachusetts has ten Representatives and, like all other states, two Senators.
3. Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming are relatively small states by population. They voted Republican in the 2004 Presidential election. They will have a Senate election next year and will almost certainly fill the Senate seat with a Republican. Because of the way the electoral college is configured, they influence the election of President more than their population counts would suggest.  To take a glaring example, Wyoming, with a half a million people, receives three electoral votes. Massachusetts, with twelve times the population (roughly six million), has only four times the number of electoral votes.
4. Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, and Virginia each have a Republican Senator who is not running again. Therefore none of their 2008 Senate candidates will have the advantage of incumbency. Democrats are considered to have some chance of winning a Senate seat in Colorado, New Mexico, or Virginia.
5. A two-thirds vote of those voting can override a presidential veto. If all hundred Senators vote, 67 votes are needed for an override. Currently there are 49 Democrats in the Senate, plus two who ran as independents but are grouped with Democrats. There are 49 Republicans.
6. The House has 435 seats.
7. It takes a two-thirds vote of those voting to override a veto. If all 435 House members cast votes, 290 are needed for an override. Currently there are 233 Democrats. Even though 43 Republicans joined almost all the Democrats to pass legislation to extend health insurance to uninsured children, the votes were not sufficient to override President Bush’s recent veto.
8. (a) Six states currently have an all-Democratic delegation to the House, but except for Massachusetts (with 10 seats) because of their states’ tiny populations they have tiny delegations: Maine (2), New Hampshire (2), North Dakota (1), South Dakota (1), and Vermont (1). Most states have a mixture of Republican and Democratic Representatives.
9. Even experts find It hard to predict which party will gain House seats. One analysis lists six currently Republican seats as a complete toss-up and estimates that 29 others have a slight Democratic or Republican edge (about evenly split).
10. Take a few minutes to list why you believe the country would (or wouldn’t) benefit from electing a Democrat as President and gaining additional Democratic Senate and House seats in 2008. (Keep in mind that the Democratic Party works for the Common Good.)

Test your knowledge of our country’s “Upper Chamber.”

1. What is the number of U.S. senators? (a) 100, (b) 102, (c) 104.
2. How many senators will be Democrats, beginning in January? (a) 52, (b) 50, (c) 49.
3. What is the length of a senator’s term? (a) 2 years, (b) 4 years, (c) 6 years.
4. The Senate is composed of 2 members from each state, regardless of population size. In what state is the number of people per senate seat below 250,000? (a) Wyoming, (b) Delaware, (c) Vermont.
5. California has more than 16,000,000 people per senate seat. What is the party affiliation of the two senators from California?  (a) they are both Democrats, (b) they are both Republicans, (c) it’s a tie.
6. Which Massachusetts senator was reelected in November? (a) Ted Kennedy, (b) John Kerry.
7. The new Senate Majority Leader will be a Democrat who has indicated that his top three priorities are bipartisanship, open government, and results. What is his name, and where is he from?
8. What is one of the Majority Leader’s most important official duties? (a) writing bills, (b) scheduling debates and votes, (c) overseeing the Senate’s clerks.
9. If one of the Democratic or Independent senators decided to switch sides, which party would have the majority in the Senate and why?
10. Which senator will be chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee?
11. Who is the Ranking Member of a Senate committee?
12. Which important responsibility does the Constitution give the Senate but not the House of Representatives? (a) national budget, (b) investigations of the executive branch, (c) approval of judicial nominations.
13. Which New England senators serve on the judiciary committee?
14. Can a bill passed by the House of Representatives become a law without approval by the Senate? (a) yes, in a few cases, (b) no.
15. Which of the following Democratic Presidents was previously a U.S. Senator: (a) Lyndon Johnson, (b) Jimmy Carter, (c) Bill Clinton.
Answers
1. (a) 100. Each of the 50 states has two senators. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories are not allocated seats.
2. (c). The new Senate will have 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2 men elected as Independents. Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, a registered Democrat who ran for election as an Independent, and Senator Sanders of Vermont have indicated that they will caucus with Democrats, giving the Democratic Party the Majority Leader position and the chairmanship of the powerful Senate committees.
3. (c) Senators have six-year terms.
4. (a) Wyoming. The two Republican Senators from Wyoming represent a state population (per 2000 census) of 495,304.
5.  (a) California Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein are both Democrats.
6.  (a) Ted Kennedy was elected to his eighth full term in November. He is the second most senior member of the Senate, having been elected in 1962 to fill out the term of Senator John Kennedy when he left the Senate to become President.
7. Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada will be the new Majority Leader.
8. (b) Scheduling debates and votes.
9. The Senate would have 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats and Independents who caucus with Democrats. As Vice President, Republican Dick Cheney would be the tiebreaker; the Majority Leader and all committee heads would be Republican.
10. Massachusetts Senator Kennedy is expected to be the new chair of the committee overseeing legislation regarding health care, education, labor, and pensions.
11. The Ranking Member of a committee is the spokesperson for the minority party. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has been the Ranking Member of the Senate’s Small Business Committee. He will become the committee’s chair in January when the Democrats have the majority.
12. (c) The Senate is given the responsibility for “advice and consent” of presidential nominations. The House of Representatives has no role in approving appointments.
13. Democrats Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy.
14. Both houses must pass exactly the same version of a bill if it is to become law.
15. (a) Lyndon Johnson won election to the Senate in 1948 (by only 87 votes!). Senator Johnson became Majority Leader in 1955, when one senator switched parties and gave the Democrats a one-vote majority.

Even an administration’s record isn’t always a reliable indicator, given the need for compromise, especially when the President or Governor is of one party and the other party has a majority in Congress.

One good way to learn what parties work for is to consider the achievements –rather than rhetoric – when the President (or Governor) and Congress are of the same party.

Currently Republicans control the Presidency, Senate, House, and a majority of governorships (including Massachusetts). It’s a good time to look at the Republican record and contrast it with Democratic accomplishments.

Here’s a quiz about politics of the past 75 years (for space reasons I’m keeping it brief).

Which party held the Presidency and had the majority in Congress when the following occurred? Circle D or R (answers below).

D R (1) Cut taxes for multi-millionaires while waging an expensive war.
D R (2) Protected millions of Americans from poverty in their old age.
D R (3) Won the greatest foreign war in US history.
D R (4) Gave Americans the right to access government records.
D R (5) Regulated air emissions in order to reduce illnesses caused by smog.
D R (6) Prohibited discrimination in voting, education, and employment.
D R (7) Helped millions of retirees get medical care.
D R (8) Created opportunities for millions of veterans to go to college.
D R (9) Banned child labor.
D R (10) Prohibited paying women less than men for the same job.
D R (11) Helped unemployed workers survive while looking for a job.
D R (12) Shrank the middle class and increased poverty.

What do the answers say about the core values of the parties? Democratic achievements demonstrate a push for a fairer and more tolerant society and a better future for all –working for the common good. What does the Republican record say about its values?

My previous column discussed how 15 years of Republican governors have hurt our Commonwealth. In future columns I’ll provide more reasons to be a Democrat and vote Democrat.

Answers:
1. R. Tax cuts during the current Republican administration have given the biggest breaks to multi-millionaires. We’ve gone from a budget surplus under Democrat Clinton to the largest deficit in history. Today’s babies are inheriting this debt, which will reduce their future standard of living.
2. D. Social Security was enacted by Democratic President Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress. Most Republicans voted against it then, and now Republicans are attempting to weaken it. Without Social Security, huge numbers of older Americans would be living in poverty, and most workers would be struggling to help support our retired parents as well as our children.
3. D. It was under the leadership of Democratic President Roosevelt that the US planned and won the most difficult – and most morally justified – foreign war (WW2), and then advanced international security by leading the world into the UN.
4. D. The Freedom of Information Act was passed by Democratic President Johnson and a Democratic majority in Congress.
5. R/D. Occasionally some progress has been made when government was divided. The Clean Air Act became law under Republican President Nixon, but Democrats then outnumbered Republicans in the Senate. The Republicans now are weakening air quality rules, despite global warming.
6. D. Democratic President Johnson and a Democratic Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.
7. D. Under Democratic President Johnson and a Democratic Congress, Medicare was enacted. Because of compromises, some Republicans supported the final legislation, but a majority of Republican senators still noted Nay.
8. D. The GI Bill was passed under Democratic President Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress. Many of our families climbed into the middle class as a result of the opportunities it gave to our parents or grandparents.
9. D. Under Democratic President Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress, the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed. Until then, many children worked in manufacturing and mining!
10. D. Under Democratic President Kennedy and a Democratic Congress, the Equal Pay Act was signed.
11. D. The unemployment insurance program was enacted by Democratic President Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress.
12. R. Since Republican President Bush took office, many Americans have seen a decline in income, and there are millions more in poverty. The economy can worsen under either party’s administration, but how they handle the challenge is very different!