Talk:Seniority in the United States Senate/Archives/2018

Smith & Jones
Shouldn't we wait until they're both sworn in at Noon EST, before we add them to this article & remove Luther Strange? GoodDay (talk) 15:13, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yup. – Muboshgu (talk) 15:22, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Doug Jones's seniority
Does the seniority for Doug Jones begin on his election, certification, or oath? Please support answer with citation. As of 17:20, 3 January 2018 (UTC), the Senate Seniority page does not yet include him but we should assume that will be definitive when it does.—GoldRingChip 17:20, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Outgoing Senators resigning early
Is it still possible for an outgoing Senator to resign and allow the Senator-elect to be appointed early to get a head start on seniority? Thad Cochran seems to be the only such beneficiary on the current list (although it's no longer relevant for him) - has there been a rule change not mentioned here? Timrollpickering 19:56, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The senator-elect can still take office early to get advantageous office space, but a 1980s rules change forbids the senator-elect from getting a seniority advantage. The most recent case of this is John Cornyn from Texas; Phil Gramm resigned early so that he could take office in December after his election, but he didn't get a seniority advantage over other senators elected in 2002, like Lindsey Graham and Lamar Alexander. It happened with John Kerry as well back in 1985, after Paul Tsongas resigned a day early. (Edit: the rule change is mentioned in a footnote from Cornyn on the list) Davey2116 (talk) 20:16, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Tina Smith's assumption of seat. January 2 or 3?
When exactly did Smith become US Senator? She didn't resign as Minnesota lieutenant governor until mid-night (Jan 3) & therefore couldn't have become US Senator before then. This dispute is also ocurring at the Tina Smith article. GoodDay (talk) 16:34, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The official Senate listing has both Doug Jones and Tina Smith taking office on January 3 (although the updaters of that list are not prone to error; Luther Strange's end date is listed as January 3, 2015, not 2018). Davey2116 (talk) 17:46, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

Bernie Sanders is not a Democratic Senator
Sanders making a statement of party affiliation as a Democratic presidential candidate is a separate issue from his party affiliation in the Senate, where he continues to be an independent. 67.197.243.87 (talk) 15:40, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Correct. That's why he's listed in this article as an Independent. —GoldRingChip 17:28, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
 * There have been two different edits recently changing his listing to Democratic. 67.197.243.87 (talk) 21:11, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Do we still need a note on this page to indicate that, in the past, he was sometimes confused as a Democrat? Nobody doubts that he's currently an Independent.—GoldRingChip 12:05, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I won't argue if you want to remove it again. And I was the anon IP who created the footnote and started the discussion in 2016. JTRH (talk) 12:32, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I think I will removed it. It was necessary back in 2016 when editors kept revert-warring over Bernie's party.—GoldRingChip 17:04, 9 April 2018 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:List of United States Senators in the 115th Congress by seniority
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:List of United States Senators in the 115th Congress by seniority. —GoldRingChip 20:09, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Next Congress
We can build the list for the "Next" Congress at Draft:Seniority in the United States Senate. —GoldRingChip 18:41, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
 * There already exists for many years the page WikiProject U.S. Congress/Senate seniority table sandbox which is used for exactly that purpose, so this new draft page is actually superflous. -- fdewaele, 20 December 2018, 11:50 CET.
 * Great! I'll redirect the Draft article to the WPUSC article. —GoldRingChip 17:42, 20 December 2018 (UTC)
 * “Former representative” takes up a lot less room in the chart than “Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives,” and there’s no ambiguity as to its meaning, because service in a state legislature isn’t relevant to Congressional seniority. JTRH (talk) 17:22, 22 December 2018 (UTC)