1.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
2.
Michigan
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Michigan /ˈmɪʃᵻɡən/ is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit, Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, the two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, as a result, it is one of the leading U. S. states for recreational boating. Michigan also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds, a person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline. What is now the state of Michigan was first settled by Native American tribes before being colonized by French explorers in the 17th century, the area was organized as part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Eventually, in 1805, the Michigan Territory was formed, which lasted until it was admitted into the Union on January 26,1837, the state of Michigan soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination. Though Michigan has come to develop an economy, it is widely known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlés expedition in 1622, the first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions, missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were received by the areas Indian populations, with relatively few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph, in 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present day city of Niles. The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent, cadillacs wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post, the Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year
3.
Michigan's 7th congressional district
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Michigans 7th congressional district is a United States congressional district in Southern Michigan. From 2003 to 2013 it consisted of all of Branch, Eaton, Hillsdale, Jackson, and Lenawee counties, and included most of Calhoun, the district shifted east in the 2012 redistricting, and now includes the western suburbs of Ann Arbor and Monroe County. In the November 2,2010 midterm elections, Republican Tim Walberg defeated Mark Schauer, adrian Charlotte Coldwater Hillsdale Jackson Lansing Monroe Saline Tecumseh The 7th Congressional district was formed in 1872 covering the Thumb of Michigan. It had Tuscola, Huron, Sanilac, Lapeer, St. Clair, in 1882 Tuscola County was removed from the district but everything else remained the same. In 1892 Grosse Point and Hamtramck Townships, the one today mainly within the city boundaries of Detroit were moved into the 7th District. In 1912 Tuscola county was put back in the 7th district and it was definitely deprived of these areas by 1932. In 1964 the 7th district experienced its most drastic redistricting yet, only Lapeer County was retained from the old district while Genesee County was added. In 1972 the district was again, losing Lapeer County as well as a few outlying parts of Genesee County. In 1982 most of Lapeer county was put back in the 7th district, the northern tier of townships in Genesee County were moved to the 8th district. Burns Township in Shiawasee County and all the tier of townships in Oakland County with the exception of Brandon Township were also put in the district. After 1992 this old 7th district constituted a part of the new 9th district. The current 7th has no connection with the seventh congressional district. If populations and not just areas are considered, it is primarily an heir of the previous 3rd district, most of the area came from the old 2nd district, and some of John Dingells old 16th district was also included. All of Eaton and Calhoun Counties were preserved from the 3rd to the 7th district, half of the area of Barry County that had been in the old 3rd was retained. From the old 4th was drawn most of Branch County, the rest of Branch County and Hillsdale County, the south-western portion of Washtenaw County and western Lenawee County and most of Jackson County were taken from the old 2nd district. Even though most of the area of the old second was put in the new 7th, most of its population was moved into the 13th, From Ann Arbor to Plymouth, Livonia and Northville. The portion of Lenawee County that had been in the 16th was absorbed, and a part of the Washtenaw County area of the 15th district. Thus the new 7th district incorporated areas from six old districts, the 2002 redistricting is best seen as a shift from the 3rd district to the 2nd district legacy
4.
Mark Schauer
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Mark Hamilton Schauer is an American politician, member of the Democratic Party and former U. S. Representative for Michigans 7th congressional district, serving from 2009 to 2011, in each legislative body, he represented Battle Creek and its surrounding region. In 2008, he was elected to the House of Representatives, a moderate Democrat, Schauer was defeated in a rematch with Walberg in 2010 by 50. 2% to 45. 4%. Schauer was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Michigan in the 2014 election and he was defeated by incumbent Republican Governor Rick Snyder by 51% to 47%. Schauer was born and raised in Howell, Michigan and his mother, Myra, was a registered nurse, and his father, Robert Schauer, was a high school science teacher. He was valedictorian of his class at Howell High School and he later graduated summa cum laude from Albion College in 1984, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Gerald R Ford Institute for Public Policy. Schauer worked as a planner for the Calhoun County Planning Department, 1984–1987. A few years after graduating in 1987, he accepted a position in development for the Community Action Agency in Battle Creek. Schauer has also actively involved in the supporting the Food Bank of South Central Michigan. He also serves on the board of directors of the Kids N Stuff Childrens Museum in Albion and he was a coordinator of the Calhoun County Human Services Coordinating Council, 1992-1997. In 1993, Schauer ran for a seat on the Battle Creek City Commission, however, he was later appointed to fill an unexpired term and was then elected to a full term in 1995. He earned a degree in Political Science from Michigan State University in 1997. In 1996, Schauer ran for the 62nd district of the Michigan House of Representatives and he won re-election in 1998 and in 2000, with 67% of the vote. In 1999, he strongly opposed Republican Governor John Englers plan to appoint a monitor for Detroit Public Schools and he called it very dangerous and it was receivership. He served as the Assistant Democratic Leader from 1999 to 2000, House Education Subcommittee on Violence in the Schools In 2002, Schauer ran for the 19th district of the Michigan Senate. He defeated Republican State Representative Mickey Mortimer 55%-45%, in 2006, he won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican Elizabeth Fulton 61%-39%. He served as the Senate Minority Whip from 2003 to 2006 and he became the Senate Minority Leader after the 2006 elections. In 2004, he supported the MCCA reform, in June 2007, Schauer, along with state senators Liz Brater and Gilda Jacobs, and state representative Robert Jones, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton for U. S. President
5.
Joe Schwarz
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John J. H. Joe Schwarz, M. D. is an independent politician from Michigan, who was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2004 as a moderate Republican. He represented Michigans 7th congressional district from January 2005 to January 2007, Schwarz was born and raised in Battle Creek, Michigan, after his family moved there in 1935 so his father could work as a physician in the Veterans Administration Hospital. He has two siblings, Frank and Janet. He attended Fremont Elementary School, W. K, kellogg Junior High School, and graduated from Battle Creek Central High School. He played on the baseball, swimming and football teams at B. C, in 1959, he received a B. A. in History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he played on the 1956 reserve football team as a center. He was then assigned to the U. S. Embassy at Jakarta, Indonesia, from 1968 to 1970, he worked as a Central Intelligence Agency operative in Southeast Asia. After resigning from the CIA in 1970, he completed his training in otolaryngology at the Harvard Medical School. He returned, with his new family, to Battle Creek in 1974 and he currently sees patients at the Family Health Center in Battle Creek, a federally qualified health center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and his first wife, Anne, died in 1990, and he is divorced from his second wife. He has one daughter from his first marriage and he served as a Battle Creek City Commissioner, 1979–1985, as mayor of Battle Creek, 1985–1987, and as a member of the Michigan Senate, 1987–2002, where he was president pro tempore, 1993–2002. He left the Senate due to laws, but launched an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination for governor in 2002. Schwarz had previously attempted a bid for the Republican nomination for a seat in the U. S. House in 1992 and he finished second to fellow state senator Nick Smith in the primary for the 7th District. Although Schwarz is from Battle Creek, the largest city in the district and this allowed Smith, the major candidate from the eastern portion, to win with only 37 percent of the vote. In 2004, Schwarz ran for the 7th District again, Smith opted not to run for reelection, honoring a promise to serve only six terms in the House. Schwarz defeated Smiths son Brad Smith, Tim Walberg, and three others in a six-way Republican primary race, in the general election, Schwarz received 58% of the vote, while Democrat Sharon Renier received 36%. The remaining 6% was divided between the Green, Libertarian and U. S, during his time in Congress, Schwarz is a member of the Republican Leadership Council and The Republican Main Street Partnership. He is also a member of The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans for Choice, in 2006, Schwarz voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have banned every state from legally recognizing same-sex marriage. Schwarz is considered to be a moderate Republican who supports abortion rights, Schwarz lost in the 2006 Republican primary to Tim Walberg, a former state representative who finished third behind Schwarz in the 2004 primary
6.
Michigan House of Representatives
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The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents and its composition, powers, and duties are established in Article IV of the Michigan Constitution. Each member is limited to serving three, two-year terms, the House meets in the north wing of the Capitol in Lansing. Members of the House of Representative are commonly referred to as representatives, as elected officials, members of the House of Representatives also receive the courtesy title of the Honorable for life. The current Speaker is Tom Leonard, a third-term Republican from DeWitt, the Speaker calls the House to order at the hour to which the House last adjourned, preserves order and decorum in the chamber, recognizes Members to speak, and puts all questions. The Speaker is the administrator of the House and is technically the employer of all legislative staff. There is also a Speaker pro tempore and two associate Speakers pro tempore who preside in the absence of the Speaker, the full duties of the Speaker are described in Chapter II of the Rules of the House. The Clerk of the House of Representatives is elected by Members of the House at the beginning of each two-year term, the 33rd and current clerk is Gary L. Randall. Randall also served as clerk from 1999 to 2006, the assistant clerk is Richard J. Brown, who served as clerk from 2007 to 2010. Both Randall and Brown are former Members of the House, the sergeant at arms of the House of Representatives is the chief police officer of the House, appointed by the Speaker. The current chief sergeant at arms is David D. Dickson, the chief sergeant and the assistant sergeants are empowered as law enforcement officers by statute. Article IV of the Michigan Constitution authorizes each house of the Legislature to establish the necessary for the conduct of its business. The House does much of its work in committees, including the review of bills, executive oversight, Members of committees and their chairmen are appointed by the Speaker. Bills are referred to a committee by the Speaker, and the chairman of a committee sets its agenda, the Committee on Appropriations divides its work among subcommittees ordinarily structured by state department or major budget area. There are also four statutory standing committees, Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, House Fiscal Agency Governing Committee, Legislative Council, unlike the Senate, the House does not utilize the committee of the whole. Legislative analysts prepare concise, nonpartisan summaries and analyses of bills, summaries, completed prior to committee deliberations, describe how a bill would change current law, including any fiscal impact. The governing committee is responsible for HFA oversight, establishment of operating procedures, the director is one of three state officials charged with annually forecasting the states revenues at the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conferences, which are held at least twice each year. In January 1993, a story in The Detroit News detailed a massive scandal in the House Fiscal Agency
7.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
8.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
9.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
