The Texas Legislature

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Questions:
1. Who is your current representative in the Texas State Senate? In the Texas House of Representatives? To find out their names, go to the Texas Legislature’s website http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/ and type your address in the “who represents me?” section. (4 points)

2. Use the same website that is given above to identify the district number for your State Senator and the district number for your State House member. (2 points)

3. Go to the following website https://justfacts.votesmart.org/ and type your current Texas State Senator’s name. Click on “Votes” to see the voting record of your State Senator. Based on the information provided, which bills has your State Senator supported and what does this tell you about their political ideology? Think about how conservative, moderate, or liberal their voting record is. Explain. (10 points)

4. Go to the following website https://justfacts.votesmart.org/ and type your Texas State Senator’s name. Click on “Ratings” to see rating information for your State Senator. Provide the name of an interest group that has given a rating of 100% to your state senator (click on ‘expand all’ located at the top)? Provide the name of an interest group that has endorsed your state senator for either 2018 or 2020? What do these ratings and endorsements say about your State Senator? Explain. (10 points)

5. Go to the Texas Legislature’s website: https://senate.texas.gov/members.php and locate your Texas State Senator’s name. Click on their name to view their official webpage. Scroll down to “District Analysis” section and answer the below questions about your Texas State Senate district. (You can also view a map of your district by clicking on the image of Texas located at the bottom of that page):
a. Under the “General Election Analysis”, what percentage of the vote did Ted Cruz receive in your district in the 2018 U.S. Senate election? What percentage of the vote did Beto O’Rourke receive? What does this information tell you about the political characteristics of your State Senate district? (3 points)

b. Under the “District Profile”, what percentage of the population in your district is Anglo? What percentage is Black? What percentage is Hispanic? (3 points)

c. Under the “District Profile”, what is the per capita income for your district? Is this larger or smaller than the statewide average of $30,143? (3 points)

 

Sample Solution

petitioning by offense category at intake (i.e., crimes of violence, felonies, and misdemeanors) for Baltimore City as compared to the rest of the state. Unsurprisingly, as noted in Figure 2, crimes of violence referrals at intake were formaled at high rates: 99% in Baltimore City as compared to 91% in the rest of Maryland. Similarly, 93% of felony referrals at DJS intake in Baltimore were formaled, while 87% of felony referrals in the rest of Maryland were formaled. Thus, the percentages of formaled referrals for Crimes of Violence and Felonies in Baltimore City are higher than the percent formaled in the rest of Maryland by 8% and 6%, respectively.

During this assessment, stakeholders hypothesized that the difference in authorized formal referrals for felony referrals might be driven by differences in the handling of felony drug cases between Baltimore and the rest of the state. While this may not fully account for the difference for felony referrals overall, data confirm that 16% of felony drug referrals in the rest of Maryland were resolved or informaled at intake, while only 5% of felony drug referrals in Baltimore City were diverted. It is important to note that Maryland state law requires that SAO must authorize any informal handling of felony cases at DJS intake, so it is possible that this difference is a result of differences in SAO decisionmaking rather than decisions made by DJS intake officers regarding informal handling of this case type.

As illustrated above in Figure 2, the largest difference in percentage of formaled intake referrals between Baltimore City and the rest of Maryland was for misdemeanor referrals. In the rest of Maryland, only 35% of misdemeanor referrals at DJS Intake were authorized for a formal petition. In Baltimore City, however, that percentage was significantly higher, with 52% of intake cases formaled.

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