Anyone know where I could find out if the number of third party/independent members in the House and Senate has stayed the same over the years, increased, or decreased?
The question, of course, always depends on interpretation. Ie, do you consider Leiberaman to be a Democrat or an Independent? His only dissent with his olde party is over Iraq. But he voted to put democrats in charge of the Senate.
So things get a bit fuzzy. Some independents are virtually indistinguishable from their associated major party. Some major-party office holders have nothing in common with their party.
Even though Wikipedia is a convenient source of information that's okay for quick reference, it's not a good "official" source due to the fact that it's not peer-reviewed, can be changed at any time, and can (and does) contain inaccurate/outdated information. Government info is mostly online nowadays, though it usually sucks to look for it.
Anyhoo, here's what the government-produced stats say:
Comments 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/109th_United_States_Congress#Party_summary
etc
There is literally nothing Wikipedia can't do.
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So things get a bit fuzzy. Some independents are virtually indistinguishable from their associated major party. Some major-party office holders have nothing in common with their party.
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Even though Wikipedia is a convenient source of information that's okay for quick reference, it's not a good "official" source due to the fact that it's not peer-reviewed, can be changed at any time, and can (and does) contain inaccurate/outdated information. Government info is mostly online nowadays, though it usually sucks to look for it.
Anyhoo, here's what the government-produced stats say:
Senate: http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/senators_thirdParties.htm
House: http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/partyDiv.html (scroll to the bottom of the page for most recent. I think they should have organized it in descending order but hell, what do I know.)
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