Do national issues play a decisive role in congressional elections?

It may seem lame now, but I guarantee you we'll be talking about this every two years or so.

Wow, this issue started last August.  I'm okay with this revision.

sorry, totally missed that.  it's okay, not terribly exciting, but hey...

issue revision:

I think the proposed revision takes care of most of AE's concerns, particularly the "local race" ambiguity. He has a point about the year-to-year thing but I think that absent a real earth-shattering event that happens during an election cycle, we really end up having essentially the same argument over and over. Someone says, "all politics are local," and someone else disagrees. I think we'll be okay with the revision.

I think this is somewhat ambiguous.

First of all, tmlmorris raises some legitimate points. As written the question appears to be in regards to state rep. and state senate seats, county commissioners and City Council races.

Plus, I'd almost suggest that this is an issue that changes each election cycle, so it may be appropriate to have a year specific subject. Because, what's really the question people are wondering about is, "Will the national conditions effect Congressional elections?" The answer may be yes or no depending on the year and will be more likely to create discussion than a general topic on a very specific question.

Brian, you should edit it to reflect my suggestion and then get more comments.

I'm new at this, so forgive me if I misunderstand. To me the term "local race" refers to city elections, such as mayoral or city council elections. Is that the intent? A governor and state legislature or delegation would be elected in a "state race" and the US Congress would be elected in a "congressional race." Again, I wasn't in on any of the previous discussion, but the questions seems ambiguous to me. I also think "issues" is more specific than "conditions."

I like...

"Do national issues play a decisive role in congressional elections?"

yes, that's awesome esperanto. i've had the same problem with the "local races" language.  here's what we are talking about:

US Congress and Governors, right?  more congress than governor.

how about:

Do national issues play a decisive role in congressional elections?

when we say 'local races,' what are we talking about? for example, does that include your congressman? I think we need a little more clarity on that... you don't get elected dogcatcher on a socialized healthcare platform.

as far as "significantly affected," it seems pretty cut and dried to me, but as an alternative, we could try something like, "Do national issues play a decisive role in local elections?" I think 'decisive' is a little more concrete than 'significant.'

I do not think this is asking a local v. nat' issue question.  the issue is whether national issues impact or affect local races in a major way - not necessarily do they affect local elections MORE than local issues. 

if anyone can provide a more concrete term than "significantly affect" then do it because brian has a point there.  i'd be okay with it as is but certainly i welcome better terminology.

good catch brian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a toughy...great debate as we've seen already, but what's "significantly affected" mean?   How about which plays a greater factor or something like that.  Or....

Are local races won by national or local politics?

i thought i commented on this issue last week but it's not showing up for some reason. in any event, i love the issue and i went to propose it the other day and saw that nick beat me to it.  he's a quick one.

let's try this revision though:

Are local races significantly affected by national issues?

Yes
No