[fblike]
1. Will national security outweight the economy on voter’s minds in 2016?
2. If Donald Trump were to win the GOP presidential nomination, who should he choose as his running mate?
3. Was the San Bernardino shooting an act of terrorism?
4. Do declining oil prices give the U.S. more leverage with regards to foreign relations with Saudi Arabia?
5. Can the federal government fix the Chicago Police Department?
6. What is the most important state in the Republican presidential primaries?
7. Should women be required to register for the draft?
8. Will Janet Yellen decide the 2016 presidential election?
9. Can the FCC’s net neutrality regulations survive a judicial challenge?
10. Should Puerto Rico’s municipalities have the power to declare bankruptcy?
Off-year elections are an often neglected part of the American political discourse. These elections, which take place in odd numbered years, attract little attention due to the fact that they focus primarily on state and local issues with little national significance. Off-year elections do not involve elections to the House, Senate, or the White House and the states that hold these types of contests – Virginia, New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky – tend to draw a small pool of registered voters. Nevertheless, off-year elections do matter for the voters of the states that hold them as new governors and state officials are elected and ballot measures are submitted for ratification. For example, in 2015 voters in Houston rejected an equal rights ordinance that would have covered homosexuals and transgender individuals, while Ohio voters rejected a proposal to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Furthermore, the recent elections provide continued evidence that the Republican Party thrives in non-presidential contests as they retained control of Mississippi’s governor’s mansion, won the Kentucky gubernatorial election for the first time since 2007, and fought off a Democratic attempt to win the Virginia Senate. It is unclear whether these off-year elections can affect 2016, but politicians on both sides of the aisle would be wise to pick the data apart and see if there is something to be learned from the successes and failures of various campaigns in the recent election cycle.
For the last several weeks the House Republican caucus was in turmoil over who would succeed Speaker of the House John Boehner. Boehner’s second-in-command, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, was pegged as his successor, but McCarthy’s gaffe about the Benghazi Committee’s intentions and his inability to win over House conservatives forced him to withdraw. McCarthy’s decision left House Republicans without a moderate alternative to conservative interests championed by the House Freedom Caucus so they went to the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Paul Ryan, to gauge his interest in running. Ryan had initially said that he had little desire to become speaker, arguing that he preferred policymaking instead of leading and controlling Republican votes in the chamber. However, after a plea from Boehner and other Republican leaders, and after receiving endorsements from conservative Republicans, Ryan agreed to take the job, thereby becoming the youngest Speaker of the House since the 1860s. Considering that Ryan has a lot of policy experience and has a reputation for compromise, observers are hoping that relations between the White House and the House of Representatives can be improved, and some Republicans hope that Ryan can craft some much needed policy alternatives.
One of the most polarizing issues in America concerns the ability of citizens to purchase and own firearms. Relative to other developed nations such as Great Britain, where handguns have been banned since 1996, the U.S. has a higher violent crime rate. Advocates of gun control argue that by reducing the number of guns in circulation, or at least the number of those that are able to obtain them, that the U.S. could reduce lethal incidents of violence, but opponents of gun control argue that significant restrictions on gun ownership would violate the Second Amendment and empower criminals. While remaining dormant for the last fifteen years, gun control has now become a hot political topic again, especially after a recent string of mass shootings over the last few years such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the murder of black churchgoers in Charleston this summer, and at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. Democratic presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley have made the case for greater firearm restrictions, possibly setting up 2016 as a referendum on how America should handle gun control. Furthermore, President Barack Obama is contemplating greater executive action on gun control, which could also shift the political balance for upcoming gubernatorial elections and congressional races in 2016.