How Many Blacks In the 114th Congress?

My first post on this topic came out of frustration that I couldn't easily find the answer. It's sort of easier now, but not really. In any case I've found it necessary to keep updating this information - particularly after an election. From what I can tell, checking the districts of the current Black Congress Members and searching for new ones, the 114th Congress, that begins its two year term next January, will have 45 Black Congress Members.  That's two more than the 113th Congress and includes the first Republican black woman (from Utah).  There will also be two Black Senators - one Republican and one Democrat.  You can find more on Black Senators in the previous post.

This post updates the table I put together after the 2012 election which you can find here.

I've tried to keep some of notes on changes in people between 2012 and now - in some cases people were appointed or elected to fill the terms of members who left between sessions such as Melvin Watt who resigned to become the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The chart is in alphabetical order by states.  [This chart was updated Nov 7, 2016 to:
1.  add New Jersey District 12 Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman originally overlooked because she was a new African-American represented from a district that was 75% white
2.  corrected spelling of Rep. Marc Veassey in Texas 33rd.]

Black Congress 2014 NovemberUpdated by Steve on Scribd

This is an update of previous lists that I put together when I couldn't find an up-to-date list of Black Members of Congress.  You can get a list of earlier posts here.  Please email me any errors or omissions. Email link in right column above blog archive.  Thanks.




I checked the numbers with the LA Times election results page which is very quick and very easy to use.  I used other sites to get the Washington DC election results. and the
Virgin Island election results.

South Carolina Race- Second Time Two African-Americans Compete For US Senate Seat

Senator Tim Scott was appointed to the US Senate in December 2012 until the November 2014 election to fill the position after Jim DeMint resigned.  This week he was elected to finish the last two years of DeMint's original term. (So there were two US Senate races in South Carolina this year.) Scott, the first African-American to represent South Carolina in the US Senate, defeated Democrat Joyce Dickerson, also an African-American, to become the first elected African-American from South Carolina.  This got me thinking about whether there had been a US Senate race where two African-Americans were the candidates.  It turns out there was one before as people in Illinois will surely remember.

There have only been nine African-American US Senators, beginning with two from Mississippi - Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche Bruce.  Both were Republicans, the party of Lincoln. They were both appointed by the Mississippi State Legislature.  (US Senators were not directly elected by the voters until after the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913.)


In 1966 Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke became the first African-American to be elected to the Senate.

In 1992 Carol Moseley Braun, Democrat in Illinois, became the second to be elected to, and the first woman African-American in, the Senate.

In 2002 Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican and also African-American Alan Keyes.  Yes, this was the first time two African-Americans ran for the US Senate against each other.

When Obama was elected President, another African-American, Roland Burris, was appointed to finish his term.

Then came the appointment of Tim Scott to replace DeMint followed by the appointment of Mo Cowan of Massachusetts to replace John Kerry when he was appointed Secretary of State.

Finally, Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, was elected in a special election to fill the vacancy after Senator Frank R. Lautenberg's death.  Booker was reelected in this week's election.

So, a total of nine black US Senators.  Of those,

• two were appointed by the Mississippi state legislature
• three were appointed, one of those going on to get elected for another term (Scott)
• four elected to office the first time

A sidenote to the unexpected Democratic loss of the Maryland governorship is that the Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, is African-American.  You can get more on that story here.


The outlines of this post come from a Wikipedia List of African-Americans in The US Senate, which also puts these numbers into context:

"As of 2014, there have been 1,950 members of the United States Senate, but only nine have been African American."

That Wikipedia entry also had a strange side note of sorts about P.B.S. Pinckback titled:

"African Americans elected to the U.S. Senate, but not seated"

It doesn't say anything more about how that happened, but there are footnotes. 

Google turns up almost nothing on Pinchback.  A footnote in the Wikipedia piece leads to an essay on Black politicians and the post civil war South from the US House of Representatives History, Art, and Archives pages that probably offers the most meat.  Here's most of what they say about Pinchback:

"In a unique case of double contested elections, African-American Pinckney B. S. Pinchback of Louisiana was elected simultaneously to both the Senate and House. Pinchback lost the contested House seat and, citing claims of fraud in the state legislature, the Senate denied him his seat as well. Serving as provisional governor of Louisiana at the time, Pinchback signed his own election certifications."

 I suspect that Pinchback would make a great doctoral dissertation and/or book.


For people wondering how I got into this, I'm updating my older posts on Blacks in Congress to reflect this week's election.  This is one of the sidebars that's delaying posting that one. 

What Election?

This Steller Jay was oblivious to yesterday's election.  Didn't mention it at all when he came to visit today.  Instead he wanted to know about my foot and what the doctor had said.  He had his own foot problems - much worse than mine.  But he seemed to be managing pretty well.

Now, he has wings to help him get around.  But this foot also takes the place, somewhat, of a hand.  Though the beak does a lot of that work too.  So I fashioned him a boot like mine to see if that would help out. 

Did Brat Win In Virginia?

David Brat's the econ professor at Randolf-Macon College in Virginia who knocked off House Majority Leader  Eric Cantor in the Republican primary in June 2014.

Yes, he defeated his Randolf Mason colleague, Jack Trammell  60.9% - 36.9%.  147,897 to 89,793.  [From Politico]

Someone got to my post on the June upset by googling "Did Brat from Virginia win?" and I realized I didn't know and it was a good question.  So I looked it up.

A lot of people are looking up Sherrill Redmon divorce too, which I mentioned as a side comment at the bottom of another post  in 2009.  It's a little out of date.  She retired in 2013.

By the way, here's some background on the June primary when Brat beat Cantor.

Alaska Election 2014: What Does It All Mean?

Your guess is as good as mine.  I guess in today's internet style I should have titled this "The Ten Takeaways From Yesterday's Election and How You can Lose Ten Pounds (or Organize Your Life, or Become Financially Secure in Two Weeks.)"

This post is just my thinking out loud after the election.  Since my foot is still in a boot I can't go run or bike or even walk too much (trying to just let it relax and heal).  So I'll try to write my way out of this.


1.  Republicans won most offices that were up for grabs.  But there are still absentee and maybe early voters to count.

• Republican Dan Sullivan  is ahead of Democratic incumbent Mark Begich by 48.7% to 45.1% (102,054 votes to 110,203) in the US Senate race.  This morning's ADN headline is "Sullivan holds lead;  Begich won't concede."  Begich was behind Stevens at this point in 2008, but not as far behind.

• Republican incumbent Don Young handily beat Forrest Dunbar by 25,000 votes (51% to 40%, a margin that didn't change all night) in the US House race.

• The so called Independent/Unity Ticket of Walker/Mallot is ahead of Parnell/Sullivan (different Dan Sullivan) by 3,160 votes (47%-46%).  The ADN says "Too close to call."  But even if the Walker/Mallot lead stays through the absentee votes, we'll have a governor who was a Republican until he changed to undeclared before joining up with the Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mallot to run as independents.  

Republicans kept most of their seats and took a few they didn't have in the state house and senate.  They picked up one Senate seat in Anchorage

• (Rep. Mia Costello took Hollis French's seat.  He had originally been the Democratic Lt. Gov candidate before the Unity ticket.) 

The House apparently has one seat switching from Republican to Democratic:

• Democrat Adam Wool beat incumbent Pete Higgins in Fairbanks' District 5 in the House. 

Other House races are still too close to call. 

• Republican Anand Dubey is 35 votes behind Democrat Matt Claman in House District 21, held before by Democrat turned Republican after the 2012 election Lindsey Holmes.
• Independent Daniel Ortiz is 19 votes ahead of Republican Chere Klein in the Wrangell District 36 that was held by retired Rep. Peggy Wilson.  
• Democrat Laurie Hummel is only 167 votes behind Republican incumbent Gabrielle LeDoux in Anchorage District 15.  This one would be a little harder for Hummel to pull off, though LeDoux gained 140 votes over Hummel when the last 20% of the voters were counted.  I don't know how many absentee and early votes are to be counted in this normally low turnout district.

2.  All the ballot measures passed (well sort of because in the wording on Anchorage Prop 1, a no vote was a vote to pass the proposition).  This is noteworthy because while the Republicans did well when their label was on the candidates, the Democrats did well in the ballot measures where there was no party label.

• Ballot Measure 2:  To Legalize Marijuana  - we can quibble if this was a Democratic or Republican cause because both parties had key figures leading both sides.  But the Democratic opposition seemed to be more about the commercialization of marijuana than about legalizing marijuana.   It passed 116,803 to 107179 or 52.15% to 47.85%.  Marijuana got more votes than Dan Sullivan.  But then there was no 'maybe' or other options in this election, but there were third parties in the Senate election.

• Ballot Measure 3:  Increase Minimum Wage
  Yes:  154,516 (68.8%)
  No:    70,082  (31.2%)
  While this is normally a Democratic issue, some of the Republicans supported it on the grounds that states can set minimum wage, just not the feds.  Not sure how much difference that makes with their economic argument that it messes with the free market and causes jobs to disappear. 

• Ballot Measure 4:  Protect Bristol Bay Fish (by making it harder to build the Pebble Mine)
  Yes:  143,287 (65.32%)
  No:     76,062 (34.68%)
  Note again, that Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan got 110,203 votes.  Dan Sullivan who vehemently opposes federal regulation, the EPA report that raised major questions about Pebble Mine, and, from what I can tell, has never seen a problematic development project.

• Anchorage Proposition 1: Keep Mayor Sullivan's Draconian Labor Ordinance
  Yes:  41998 (46.17%)
  No:  48961  (53.83%)
  Remember, a no vote essentially approved the proposition because of how it was worded:  Should we keep Anchorage Ordinance 37?  Also, only Anchorage voters had this on the ballot so the numbers are much lower.  This was heavily backed by labor unions and Democrats and opposed by Republicans.  

3.   So, what does this all mean?  Here I'm going to just hypothosize possibilities.  But who knows for sure?  Certainly not me.

• Left leaning issues did well when there was no party label, right leaning candidates did well when there was a label.

• Nationally, the Koch Brothers Party did extremely well.  It's more than money since there were left  leaning PACs as well that poured lots of money in.  

• Who's checking the voting machines?  I have no evidence whatsoever that there was any tampering with voting machines.  However, it's clear that such tampering is possible and has probably happened in past elections.  But we have no systems to vigorously guard against such tampering in each state and nationally.  We know that computer hackers can get into large corporate and government data bases.  The US government has accused China of hacking to get into trade and government secrets.  Yet as we watched the somewhat surprisingly heavy Republican victory nationwide last night, I heard none of the national new media even mention election fraud or hacking of machines in any of their attempts to explain what happened.  They can't, because they have no evidence.  But how would they get any evidence?  They don't have any way of checking except for the most obvious, clumsy attempts.  We need to have serious monitoring of all electronic voting equipment, just as we have monitoring of polling booths and voter ids.  

That's what comes to mind this morning after the 2014 election.  There are plenty of other issues to ponder and this is a quick and dirty post.  Don't take it too seriously.  I have things to do today besides blog. 

Districts 24 and 25 in Ancorage Both Have 100% And Clear Winners

HOUSE DISTRICT 24
		Total
Number of Precincts		7
Precincts Reporting		7	100.0%
Times Counted		7389/13514	54.7%
Total Votes		7058
Fenster, Michael "Mi	DEM	2515	35.63%
Johnson, Craig W.	REP	4512	63.93%
Write-in Votes		31	0.44%

HOUSE DISTRICT 25
		Total
Number of Precincts		7
Precincts Reporting		7	100.0%
Times Counted		6253/12534	49.9%
Total Votes		6045
Millet, Charisse E.	REP	3333	55.14%
Higgins, Patti	DEM	2693	44.55%
Write-in Votes		19	0.31%

mmmmmmmm

Here Are The Districts With 100% Precincts Counted

As of the 10:50pm Election Report.

Although these all have 100% of the precincts counted, there are still absentee and questioned ballots to count.  But none of these look close.

There are three of 20 Senate seats - two went Republican, one Democratic.

There are 14 of forty House seats - fourteen went Republican, four went Democratic

So a lot of the Democratic districts haven't fully reported yet, which might give some faint hope to Mark Begich who is behind by about 5 percent.

The initiatives all look like they are on their way to pass, including the Anchorage Prop 1 where a No vote is a vote to repeal Mayor Sullivan's labor law.    Minimum Wage and the Bristol Bay initiative to protect salmon are both winning big.  The marijuana initiative is also ahead, but not by quite so much.  I'd say it's not certain yet.  [The next report has it about 8000 ahead]

Don Young seems to have retained his seat - he's leading 51% to 40% over Dunbar.

The governor race is tightening with Walker/Mallot less than 2000 votes ahead.

SENATE DISTRICT A
		Total
Number of Precincts		13
Precincts Reporting		13	100.0%
Times Counted		8305/23296	35.6%
Total Votes		8030
Kelly, Pete	REP	4902	61.05%
Kruse Roselius, Tama	DEM	3088	38.46%
Write-in Votes		40	0.50%

SENATE DISTRICT O
		Total
Number of Precincts		17
Precincts Reporting		17	100.0%
Times Counted		10994/27367	40.2%
Total Votes		10509
Treider, Eric D.	NA	2313	22.01%
Micciche, Peter A.	REP	8134	77.40%
Write-in Votes		62	0.59%

SENATE DISTRICT Q
		Total
Number of Precincts		18
Precincts Reporting		18	100.0%
Times Counted		13998/28622	48.9%
Total Votes		13613
Egan, Dennis	DEM	9734	71.51%
Williams, Tom	REP	3817	28.04%
Write-in Votes		62	0.46%

HOUSE DISTRICT 1
		Total
Number of Precincts		9
Precincts Reporting		9	100.0%
Times Counted		5019/12150	41.3%
Total Votes		4917
Bringhurst, Gregory	REP	2241	45.58%
Kawasaki, Scott J.	DEM	2662	54.14%
Write-in Votes		14	0.28%

HOUSE DISTRICT 2
		Total
Number of Precincts		4
Precincts Reporting		4	100.0%
Times Counted		3286/11146	29.5%
Total Votes		3145
Thompson, Steve M.	REP	2129	67.69%
Murakami, Larry	DEM	1005	31.96%
Write-in Votes		11	0.35%

HOUSE DISTRICT 3
		Total
Number of Precincts		5
Precincts Reporting		5	100.0%
Times Counted		5445/12683	42.9%
Total Votes		5293
Hunter, Sharron J.	DEM	1047	19.78%
Wilson, Tammie	REP	4219	79.71%
Write-in Votes		27	0.51%

HOUSE DISTRICT 4
		Total
Number of Precincts		7
Precincts Reporting		7	100.0%
Times Counted		7577/13749	55.1%
Total Votes		7315
Blanchard, Joe II	REP	3129	42.78%
Guttenberg, David	DEM	4140	56.60%
Write-in Votes		46	0.63%

HOUSE DISTRICT 5
		Total
Number of Precincts		9
Precincts Reporting		9	100.0%
Times Counted		6032/12565	48.0%
Total Votes		5836
Higgins, Pete B.	REP	2788	47.77%
Wool, Adam	DEM	3011	51.59%
Write-in Votes		37	0.63%

HOUSE DISTRICT 7
		Total
Number of Precincts		7
Precincts Reporting		7	100.0%
Times Counted		5866/12668	46.3%
Total Votes		5603
Rupright, Verne	NA	1964	35.05%
Gattis, Lynn	REP	3605	64.34%
Write-in Votes		34	0.61%

HOUSE DISTRICT 9
		Total
Number of Precincts		11
Precincts Reporting		11	100.0%
Times Counted		5487/13439	40.8%
Total Votes		5234
Colver, Jim	REP	3003	57.37%
Goode, Pamela	CON	1509	28.83%
Wimmer, Mabel H.	DEM	691	13.20%
Write-in Votes		31	0.59%

HOUSE DISTRICT 11
		Total
Number of Precincts		9
Precincts Reporting		9	100.0%
Times Counted		6475/13477	48.0%
Total Votes		6301
LaFrance, Pete P.	DEM	1858	29.49%
Hughes, Shelley	REP	4428	70.27%
Write-in Votes		15	0.24%

HOUSE DISTRICT 28
		Total
Number of Precincts		9
Precincts Reporting		9	100.0%
Times Counted		8983/15175	59.2%
Total Votes		8596
Combs, Samuel Duff	DEM	3207	37.31%
Hawker, Mike	REP	5349	62.23%
Write-in Votes		40	0.47%

HOUSE DISTRICT 29
		Total
Number of Precincts		11
Precincts Reporting		11	100.0%
Times Counted		5530/13570	40.8%
Total Votes		5231
Chenault, Charles "M	REP	4013	76.72%
Knudsen, Rocky	DEM	1175	22.46%
Write-in Votes		43	0.82%

HOUSE DISTRICT 30 Total Number of Precincts 6 Precincts Reporting 6 100.0% Times Counted 5464/13797 39.6% Total Votes 5249 Thornton, Shauna L. DEM 1352 25.76% Olson, Kurt E. REP 3869 73.71% Write-in Votes 28 0.53%

HOUSE DISTRICT 31
		Total
Number of Precincts		9
Precincts Reporting		9	100.0%
Times Counted		5853/14583	40.1%
Total Votes		4907
Seaton, Paul	REP	4769	97.19%
Write-in Votes		138	2.81%

HOUSE DISTRICT 33
		Total
Number of Precincts		11
Precincts Reporting		11	100.0%
Times Counted		6494/14803	43.9%
Total Votes		6242
Dukowitz, Peter	REP	1491	23.89%
Kito, Sam S.	DEM	4719	75.60%
Write-in Votes

HOUSE DISTRICT 34
		Total
Number of Precincts		7
Precincts Reporting		7	100.0%
Times Counted		7504/13819	54.3%
Total Votes		7359
McGuan, George	DEM	2774	37.70%
Muñoz, Cathy E.	REP	4565	62.03%
Write-in Votes		20	0.27%

As Of 10:16 Report - Democrat Adam Wool Ahead of Incumbent Pete Higgins

District 5 race in Fairbanks, Dem. Adam Wool is leading incumbent Pete Higgins by 276 votes with 66% of precincts reporting.

District 15 Democratic challenger has moved up in the latest report to within 30 votes.  She was 95 votes behind in the earlier reports.

The initiatives continue to be well ahead.

Begich continues to be 5% behind Sullivan.

Early Results - Tammy Wilson in District 3 Is A Winner

Most races have from 0% to 50% of precincts reporting.

The initiatives - marijuana, minimum wage, Bristol Bay, and repeal of Anchorage's Labor Ordinance -  are ahead.

It says that 100% of the precincts are in.  There's 5030 votes.  And Wilson has 79%, so this one looks like a wrap.

UPDATE:  9:35pm they've put up another set of results and despite having 100% in the race, they added about 260 votes.

 Another race that looks like it's over is Fairbanks District 1.  Scott Kawasaki, with 90% of precincts reported looks comfortably ahead by percent, but he's only.

[I'm having trouble with feedburner, so I'm reposting this.  I'm seeing if I change the images from .png to .jpg it will work.] [It didn't.]

An Explanation for Nancy Dahlstrom's Harsh Response To National Guard Complaints

Let's connect some dots.

Among the many emails released by Gov. Parnell over the weekend in response to a court order was this one from Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom quoted in part in the Alaska Dispatch News Monday:

“Your statements are reckless and have the potential to cause irreparable damage to these fine officers,” Dahlstrom said in an email dated Aug. 25, 2009, to Debra Blaylock, a just-retired lieutenant colonel in the guard. “I take great offense to your statement that it is a ‘good old boy’ network with corrupt leadership. I believe the current leaders are outstanding and have made tremendous advancements in improving the overall morale, day-to-day operations, direction, and relevancy of the organization. I have never seen it function better. As a citizen of Alaska, I am truly proud to call them my National Guard.”

 Laura Pierre and Rules Chair Nancy Dahlstrom (Image Source)

Dahlstrom concluded her email with even stronger language: “There is no room for mean spirited, unsubstantiated, and malicious correspondence targeted towards the undermining and destruction of the excellent reputation and character of Alaska’s leadership.”

This is pretty harsh.  Not the kind of letter that legislators usually write to the public, even if they aren't their constituents. 

I have a strong suspicion why this email supported the Guard so strongly and so meanly chastised Debra Blaylock:  Laura Pierre.

 
Who is Laura Pierre?


Laura Pierre is the wife of McHugh Pierre.

McHugh Pierre was,  until his recent forced resignation, Civilian Deputy Commissioner for the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.  This is the state department that includes:

• US Property and Facilities Office,  
• Alaska Aerospace Commission 
• Army National Guard 
• Air National Guard 
• Homeland Security and Emergency Management
• Alaska Youth Academy
• Veterans Affairs
• Alaska State Defense Force
• Alaska Naval Militia, 
• Office of Facilities Management.

The ADN, in a long article on McHugh Pierre's forced resignation wrote that investigators found

"Pierre had also inserted himself into the efforts of whistle-blowers who were working to alert Parnell to serious concerns about how sexual assault cases were being managed. "

Source

While McHugh was working in the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, his wife Laura Pierre was on Nancy Dahlstrom's legislative staff.





Some Background

When I went down to Juneau to be a volunteer staffer for Max Gruenberg in 2010, the Rules Committee was telling Max Gruenberg that he could not have a full time volunteer staffer.  I didn't know this until the afternoon of the day of new staff training.  At the end of that session - there's a description of the panel with a photo at the bottom of this 2010 post -  I asked one of the panelists a question.  She asked me which office I was going to be a staffer in.  I answered I would be a volunteer for Rep. Gruenberg.  At that point Laura Pierre jumped into the discussion and, in a very forceful voice, said something like, "There will be no volunteer staffers."  I was taken aback not only by the message, but even more by the vehemence of her tone. And it was the first time that I realized that my volunteer position was in jeopardy.

I had introduced myself to Nancy Dahlstrom during the break that morning and she had been very polite and cordial.  Rep. Dahlstrom also treated me warmly when the final decision came down that Rep. Gruenberg could not have a full time volunteer staffer.  She welcomed my proposal that I would stay in Juneau as a blogger and told me that if I needed anything to let her know.   Later we did have a long, very friendly, and interesting discussion in her office.

Finally, Connecting The Dots

All this background causes me to suspect that Dahlstrom's view of the Guard and  Lt. Blaylock was strongly influenced by her staffer, Laura Pierre, who was in turn influenced by her husband who the investigators said, as quoted above, "inserted himself into the efforts of whistle-blowers who were working to alert Parnell to serious concerns about how sexual assault cases were being managed."  And since staffers often draft communications for their legislator bosses,  I wouldn't be surprised if Pierre drafted the email in question.

If that is the case, then Dahlstrom's response and apology reflects well on her professionalism and leadership.  She took full responsibility for the email without a hint that someone else might have written it.  And, of course, as the boss whose name was on the email, that's how she should respond.  But there are other legislators who would have shifted the blame to a staffer, even if the staffer hadn't written it.