As you can imagine, elected officials have an enormous about of information come to us daily…..emails, snail mail, phone calls, invitations, and publications.
Tonight I was reading through the recent issue of “State Legislatures” (from the National Conference of State Legislatures) and thought I’d pass some statistics along for those junkies out there who may actually find this interesting.
Did you know?
In 1938, there were 7,480 state legislators representing 113 million people.Since then, the nation’s population has grown to 304 million people and the number of state legislators actually decreased.
In 1938, a House member represented 23,124 people and a senator represened 72, 176. Today, a House member represents 56,216 people and a senator represents 154,330.
In the South Carolina 2004 elections (the last time prior to this year that all House and Senate were on the ballot), 6 candidates for the House raised more than $50,000 campaigning – and lost. In the Senate, 12 candidates raised more than $100,000 campaigning and lost.
In the New Hampshire 2004 elections the most money raised for a House Seat? $12,158 (That was the only candidate to raise more than $10,000).
South Carolina has the lowest percent of female representation (And our Senate next year will have ZERO women).
New Hampshire’s legislature has the oldest (92) and youngest (21) lawmakers in the country.
The New Hampshire legislature has 424 members (400 House, 24 Senate) making it the THIRD LARGEST LEGISLATIVE BODY IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD behind only the United States Congress and British Parliament. (As reference, we have 170)
Legislative Salaries: California $116,098; Michigan $79,650; Pennsylvania $70,163, South Carolina $10,400; New Hampshire $200.
Legislatures that meet biennially: Arkansas, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas.
Average age of state-lawmakers throughout the US: 56