Deck 3: Texas Legislature

Question 1

Which one of the following is a realistic description of the qualifications for office and length of terms for the Texas Legislature?

A) a twenty-year-old candidate for the Texas House of Representatives
B) a fifty-year-old candidate for the Texas Senate who moved to Texas three years prior to the election
C) a forty-five-year-old candidate for the Texas Senate who wants to be elected to a six-year term
D) a Texas resident for twenty-five years who seeks election to the Texas House of Representatives

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The significance of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims is that ______.

A) state legislatures were weakened relative to the executive
B) the decisions established that legislatures must be apportioned according to the one-person, one-vote standard
C) state legislatures were weakened relative to Congress
D) state legislatures were required to be bicameral
E) state lower houses were required to have at least 100 members

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Geographic representation is consistent with a ______ theory of representation.

A) trustee
B) politico
C) microcosm
D) macrocosm
E) delegate

Answer 3

E

Question 4

The trustee model of representation envisions ______ role for the personal values and conscience of the representation.

A) a lesser
B) no
C) a tempered
D) a greater

Question 5

A bill passes the Texas Legislature with 90 percent of the vote in both houses. This is an example of a ______.

A) filibuster
B) plurality
C) supermajority
D) veto

Question 6

Which of the following is a basic characteristic of the Texas Legislature?

A) It is the only unicameral legislature in the United States.
B) It meets for one regular session each year.
C) The governor may call special sessions of the legislature.
D) The size of legislative districts varies according to county population.

Question 7

The major justification for a bicameral legislature is that ______.

A) it makes it more difficult for a majority to abuse its power
B) it is traditional
C) it makes it easier to represent different interests
D) it increases the power of the executive
E) it increases the expertise available to evaluate legislation

Question 8

The redistricting method is an example of a hybrid system, because ______.

A) the governor submits a redistricting plan to the legislature
B) the Legislative Redistricting Board consists of both Democrats and Republicans
C) if the legislature is unable to pass a plan, the duty is handed over to the Legislative Redistricting Board
D) both parties submit their own sets of newly drawn district maps
E) the federal and state legislatures work collaboratively to redraw the districts

Question 9

Which court case mandates that both houses of a state legislature represent the population on a one-person, one-vote basis?

A) Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
B) Baker v. Carr (1962)
C) Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
D) Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

Question 10

The description of the redistricting process in Texas for the Texas Legislature and for the U.S. House of Representatives leads to the conclusion that the process is ______.

A) partisan
B) nonpartisan
C) bipartisan
D) mostly nonpartisan
E) mostly bipartisan

Question 11

A bicameral legislature ______.

A) has two chambers
B) meets biannually
C) is a citizen legislature
D) is a professional legislature

Question 12

The drawing of district boundaries for legislative districts in the Texas Legislature must follow the rule of ______.

A) one person, one vote
B) equal group representation
C) proportional party representation
D) keeping counties in the same district to the maximum degree possible
E) gerrymandering

Question 13

The governor may call special legislative sessions of up to ______ days.

A) 90
B) 180
C) 30
D) 9

Question 14

All of these are characteristics of a professional legislature EXCEPT that ______.

A) membership is a full-time occupation
B) its meets annually
C) it can meet for as long as nine months out of the year
D) it meets biannually

Question 15

Texas ______ term limits for the state legislature.

A) has three-year
B) does not have
C) voters recently approved
D) judges oppose

Question 16

The ______ theory of representation holds that elected officials are agents of the majority who elected them to office and thus they should carry out, to the extent possible, the wishes of the majority.

A) delegate
B) trustee
C) politico
D) agent
E) popular sovereignty

Question 17

Elections to the North Dakota House of Representatives are different from elections to the Texas House of Representatives in that ______.

A) members of the North Dakota House represent more people
B) members of the Texas House must be elected by majority vote
C) North Dakota uses multimember districts
D) Texas uses multimember districts
E) North Dakota elects its members to two-year terms

Question 18

Demographic representation is consistent with a ______ theory of representation.

A) trustee
B) politico
C) microcosm
D) macrocosm
E) delegate

Question 19

Men are ______ in the Texas Legislature relative to the state population.

A) overrepresented
B) underrepresented
C) evenly represented
D) unrepresented

Question 20

Baker v. Carr (1962) argued that the ______ requires a one-person, one-vote approach to districting.

A) Thirteenth Amendment
B) Twelfth Amendment
C) Supremacy Clause
D) Fourteenth Amendment

Question 21

The Texas Constitution limits the size of the Texas House to 200 members.

Question 22

State legislatures in Canada and Mexico are unicameral, whereas their national legislatures are bicameral.

Question 23

All of the following statements concerning the governor's veto power are true EXCEPT that ______.

A) if the governor does not sign a bill within twenty days when it is passed at the end of a session, the bill dies
B) if the governor fails to sign or veto a bill while the legislature is in session, it becomes law in ten days
C) the governor has twenty days from the end of a session to veto a bill that was passed at the end of the session
D) the governor has a line-item veto on budget bills

Question 24

Pay for Texas legislators is among the highest in the nation.

Question 25

All of the following are tactics that the minority party may use to defeat a bill on the floor of the Texas Legislature EXCEPT ______.

A) attempting to attach a killer amendment to the bill
B) filibustering the bill
C) putting a hold on the bill
D) chubbing
E) preventing a quorum from being present

Question 26

A committee created to reconcile the differences in the Texas Senate and Texas House versions of a bill is a(an) ______ committee.

A) select
B) standing
C) conference
D) interim
E) special

Question 27

The entire Senate is up for reelection every four years.

Question 28

Over 90 percent of legislators in both the Texas House and the Texas Senate have college degrees.

Question 29

The preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was imposed on states with a history of discrimination.

Question 30

Candidates for the Texas House must be at least twenty-one years of age and have a college degree.

Question 31

More recently, Republicans have dominated the redistricting process for their benefit.

Question 32

Standing committees contribute to the power of the chambers of the Texas Legislature by ______.

A) making it easier for them to fulfill the governor's policy goals
B) giving members a place to take popular positions
C) giving the legislature a place to kill undesirable legislation
D) providing a place for the majority party to dominate the legislative process
E) creating a division of labor

Question 33

The importance of having a blocking bill at the top of the calendar in the Texas Senate is that ______.

A) it allows the Senate to choose the order in which it will take up bills on the calendar
B) it prevents minorities from blocking legislation from the floor
C) it increases the likelihood that bills will have to be amended to pass
D) it reduces the influence of the president of the Senate on the legislative process
E) it increases the power of the majority party in the legislative process

Question 34

Gerrymandering is illegal in the state of Texas.

Question 35

The standing committees of the Texas Legislature engage in oversight of the executive branch ______.

A) because there is a natural distrust of the executive among members of the legislature
B) to assure that procedures, standards, and regulations developed by the agencies follow legislative intent
C) because the executive is staffed mostly by political appointees who require constant monitoring
D) because constituents demand it and reward it
E) to placate powerful interest groups

Question 36

District lines being drawn to preserve the voter support for an incumbent is an example of gerrymandering.

Question 37

The Texas Constitution establishes all of the following rules for redistricting EXCEPT that ______.

A) it must be contiguous
B) a clear Democratic or Republican majority must exist in the district
C) it must respect county boundaries to the extent possible
D) it must be as compact as possible

Question 38

Candidates for the Texas Senate must be at least thirty-five years of age.

Question 39

The Texas Senate has always used a multimember district system by constitutional decree.

Question 40

The comptroller can call special legislative sessions in the event of an unforeseen budget crisis.

Question 41

Discuss the election of the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

Question 42

The president pro tempore of the Senate takes over when the lieutenant governor is unavailable.

Question 43

A legislature that meets annually, often for nine months a year, compensates its legislators with a professional-level salary, and provides generous allowances to hire and keep support and research staffs is a ______ legislature.

Question 44

A concurrent resolution requires passage by both the Texas House and the Texas Senate.

Question 45

Bureaucratic oversight is a main function of ______committees.

Question 46

When a substantial number of votes beyond 50 percent is necessary, a ______ is required.

Question 47

Identify and discuss the factors that make the Texas Legislature more like a citizen legislature and those that make it more like a professional legislature. Which type of legislature does the Texas Legislature most resemble? What are the major consequences of this condition?

Question 48

The shift to Republican dominance in the Texas House has put an end to bipartisan voting.

Question 49

What are the major arguments against the imposition of term limits on members of a state legislature?

Question 50

An election system in which the state is divided into many election districts, but each district elects more than one person to the state legislature is a ______.

Question 51

Due to the elimination of the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the federal government must now approve any changes to election procedures.

Question 52

State the purpose of the Legislative Budget Board.

Question 53

The governor is responsible for assigning bills in the Senate to their appropriate committee.

Question 54

What is legislative turnover and what causes it?

Question 55

John Adams was a believer in microcosm theory. What is this perspective, and how well does the Texas Legislature live up to its ideals?

Question 56

The vote for the Texas Speaker position is never bipartisan.

Question 57

The Texas Legislature has two caucuses.

Question 58

What is the nature of the politico style of representation?