Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. Congress/Archives/2012

Nomination of Leon Panetta as a United States Wikipedians' Collaboration of the Month candidate
Greetings, as a WikiProject that relates to this article, this notice was sent to let you know that the article, Leon Panetta, has been nominated to be a future Collaboration of the Month article. All editors interested in voting for or improving these article are encouraged to participate. You can cast your vote here. --Kumioko (talk) 16:43, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

WikiWomen's History Month
Hi everyone. March is Women's History Month and I'm hoping a few folks here at WP:U.S. Congress will have interest in putting on events (on and off wiki) related to women's roles in the US Congress. We've created an event page on English Wikipedia (please translate!) and I hope you'll find the inspiration to participate. These events can take place off wiki, like edit-a-thons, or on wiki, such as themes and translations. Please visit the page here: WikiWomen's History Month. Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to seeing events take place! SarahStierch (talk) 21:02, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Question: Is it true (as recently ranted on Fox News) that U S Congressional 'staff' members do NOT have to repay college loans?
Can someone please expand this page to includes 'benefit?' 71.234.169.208 (talk) 14:22, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Species of Senate candidates
I notice that a cat is listed on the United States Senate election in Virginia, 2012 article. Is there a requirement that a Senate candidate be human? Hack (talk) 16:24, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * There is an age requirement, 30 years, which the cat would not meet.—GoldRingChip 17:24, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * See Article One of the United States Constitution; note that meeting the requirements is a barrier to taking office, not to running as a candidate or winning the election - underage candidates have won (some took office before turning the required age), later elected individuals waited until attaining the age, and candidates have won despite being dead. Dru of Id (talk) 22:39, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Good point — then I guess a cat could be a candidate; a cat could win; but a cat couldn't serve. For that matter, so could a cactus or the color blue.—GoldRingChip  02:25, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The cat could poll the highest number of votes, but to win it must be declared the winner by the canvass committee (or election inspectors...), which I doubt they would do. But it would certainly be the "moral winner"... Kraxler (talk) 00:33, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The original question was more about whether the cat could be registered as a candidate and/or get its name on the ballot. Hack (talk) 07:08, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Which would depend on Virginia state election laws, which I don't know. Dru of Id (talk) 12:35, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

AfD - List of United States Senators who died in the 2010s
This article is up for deletion and I could really use some support for it to stay. I plan on making other lists to easily show senators and representatives by date of death, all of which will look presentable in this template. I chose to break up the senators by decade because 1 page for each year would have too few and 1 for all time would have too many. I also made this page to summarize as well as link to all of the current congressional death pages. This creates a very easy way to view a significant moment (death) from these important people. Please weigh in on the discussion. Thanks. RoadView (talk) 04:32, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * For the sake of being balanced, I encourage you to voice your support for deletion if that's what you feel is necessary. RoadView (talk) 19:19, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

== AfD - Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of members of the United States House of Representatives who died in 2012 ==

Please weigh in on the discussion for this as well, thanks. RoadView (talk) 22:33, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

South Dakota's 1st congressional district - counties?
What were its counties between the 1912 and 1982 elections? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.149.242.9 (talk) 16:23, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Which congressional districts has Kennedy Space Centre's Launch Complex 39 been in since the 1966 elections?
I know that Bill Posey and Sandy Adams are Brevard County's current reps whose districts cover the KSC area, Merritt Island, Titusville, and the Space Coast. I also know that before Bill Nelson (one-time Shuttle astronaut) became a Senator he represented the area until he retired at the 1990 elections; he was elected to the House in 1978, but I do not know for sure if the area was ALREADY a part of his district at the time, or if it was transferred to his seat in subsequent redistricting during his tenure. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Harry Porter, 26, UK — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.149.242.9 (talk) 16:30, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

South Dakota's 2nd congressional district - counties?
What were its counties between the 1912 and 1982 elections?--86.149.242.9 (talk) 16:35, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

2012 Redistricting
Hey everyone...it looks like we have alot of work ahead of us to edit/move articles to reflect redistricting...has there already been a discussion on this, and is there any policy in place? Thanks & let me know if I can be of help. Paul (talk) 16:36, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Let's make a to do list. Can you add to it?—GoldRingChip  17:25, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

To do:
 * 1) New geography added to districts.  Note: Do not delete old information, it's historical.
 * 2) Demographics added (see Note above)
 * 3) New reps if redistricted, when re-elected

Polling order
In Talk:United_States_Senate_election_in_Massachusetts,_2012, we are having a dispute concerning whether polls should be listed in chronological or reverse-chronological order. I would appreciate any outside input from the broader group of editors who contribute to these articles. Thanks! johnpseudo 16:12, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Barack Obama FAR
There is a discussion ongoing at Featured article review/Barack Obama/archive9Lihaas (talk) 16:26, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Congressional Cemetery - QR code project
The Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC will become the world's largest outdoor encyclopedia of American history from July1 - October 1, 2012. Visitors can scan QRpedia QR codes placed next to the graves or cenotaphs of people memorialized there, and their smart phones will then display the Wikipedia article on that person in the preferred language of the smart phone owner. If no article is available in their preferred language, they will be offered a list of available articles or the choice of a Google translation.

Sixty articles will be available, mostly on congressmen. For a full list see Wikimedia outreach. Some of the articles could use a bit of work, updating, cleanup, etc. Also, if anybody can translate some of these articles into other languages, it would be a welcome convenience for foreign visitors to our nation's capital. Feel free to ask any questions on this project here or on my talk page.

Any help appreciated.

Smallbones (talk) 16:42, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Elizabeth Hawley Gasque
Does anyone have any conclusive evidence of her age? If she was indeed born in 1886, she is the oldest person to have served. Find a Grave has an entry with a picture of the gravestone. Is this enough proof or do we need more to give her the title? On her article it's mentioned that the social security death index records say otherwise. This is rather important for record purposes and perhaps someone can give some input. - RoadView (talk) 17:11, 12 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Her Women in Congress profile gives the 1886 birthdate, matching the briefer Congressional Biography, further giving her graduation from 'Greenville Female College (now Furman University) in 1907' and marriage in 1907, although The Political Graveyard dates the wedding March 5, 1908. While the wedding age would have been possible with the later birthyear, college graduation at 21 is unremarkable, but at 14 would have been extraordinary, although not impossible. The Women in Congress profile does list its references. husband's NYT obituary preview, in case you have access, the article may give her age. Parents John Meade Hawley & Emma Maria Entzminger Hawley. Dru of Id (talk) 05:19, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Rob Portman controversy
Discussion about whether a controversy involving Rob Portman's stance on gay and lesbian issues should be removed from his article or not. Kaldari (talk) 18:03, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Alben W. Barkley
An RFC on whether this article is too long and contains too many references has been opened. You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Alben W. Barkley. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 13:37, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Maps for the new districts
We still have the old maps on each district page (at least all of them I looked at). Shouldn't we have the new maps posted for each district, as that seems more relevant for the upcoming election?DandyDan2007 (talk) 19:41, 18 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, we should. But they are not available.  If you have a source for them, then please add them.  PLEASE NOTE: do not remove the old maps, because these articles need to keep them for historical reference.—GoldRingChip  20:48, 18 October 2012 (UTC)
 * But doesn't it seem odd we have map of the boundaries of 113th Congress, but we don't have the individual maps? It has to exist somewhere, I would think.DandyDan2007 (talk) 01:01, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Nobody's created them yet. For the last decade, we've been using NationalAtlas.gov.  Can you find some?—GoldRingChip  02:32, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Requests for comment/Abortion advocacy movement coverage ready for community feedback
Requests for comment/Abortion advocacy movement coverage, an RFC that will affect the title of the articles currently titled Support for the legalization of abortion and Opposition to legal abortion if consensus is found in favor of its conclusions, is now in its community feedback phase and ready for editors to register opinions and arguments. Please add your feedback; thanks! —chaos5023 (talk) 17:27, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Requesting help with Senator Bob Corker article
Hi, I'm looking for help improving Senator Bob Corker's article. I work on Sen. Corker's campaign and have been helping to improve this article for several months now. I am not involved in directly editing the article, instead I have been making requests and suggestions on the article's talk page for other editors to review and discuss. Last week I made a request for a slight reorganization to improve the structure of the article. The talk page request explains the request in more detail, but, in short, I am hoping to group information about health care policy together in the article's Political positions section. I hope an editor here will be interested in reviewing and making this change. Thanks. Mark from tn (talk) 22:24, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

New request for Sen. Bob Corker
Hi again, while the above request has been completed I do have a new request I am looking for help with. With this new request I am again asking to move information about fiscal policy to the appropriate Fiscal policy section of the article. However, I am also asking editors to review some changes to this section. I have rewritten portions of this section to correct inaccuracies and replace dead links with sources available online. The detailed request is on the article's talk page. I would greatly appreciate any help I can receive reviewing and making these changes. Thanks. Mark from tn (talk) 19:45, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Nomination of Dean of the United States Senate for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Dean of the United States Senate is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Dean of the United States Senate until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article. Francophonie&#38;Androphilie (talk) 20:10, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

U.S. Election editnotice
I've created U.S. Election notice as an editnotice template for use on articles affected by the U.S. general election. Since the election is in early November and many of those elected don't take office until mid-to-late January, we tend to have a lot of jump-the-gun updating. This editnotice is intended to prevent some of that editing by reminding editors that there is a difference between editing and inauguration. I'm not mass-implementing it generally, but if you see that an article is drawing a lot of good faith errors, this is available. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 20:56, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Patrick Murphy RfC
Input is encouraged at Talk:Patrick Murphy (Florida politician). Instaurare (talk) 19:14, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Errors in listing districts and their candidates
I noticed in the article for Florida's 22nd congressional district that it listed Lois Frankel as defeating Allen West in the 2012 election. This is an error related to Florida's recent redistricting (Frankel did not run against West, Patrick Murphy did), and while I have fixed it for that article, there appear to be a series of related errors in the articles for the various Florida congressional candidates and their districts. Just a heads-up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.87.183.64 (talk) 16:40, 10 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Are you referring to the "succeeded by: section? If so, that seems accurate to me, as the section refers to West's incumbency for the Florida 22nd, not to his overall position as a member of Congress. Regardless of the outcome of West's election in the Florida 18th, he will be succeeded in his current role as representative from the 22nd by Lois Frankel. In other words, West may or may not continue as a representative in the 18th, but he definitely will not be continuing as a representative in the 22nd. Perhaps it would be prudent to further label Frankel in that section as "elect" - i.e. Lois Frankel (elect) - pending the actual seating of the 112th Congress?


 * I think the larger question in play here is: do we acknowledge the pending changes now (for example, labeling defeated incumbents as outgoing and acknowledging the ascendancy of their replacements, or do we wait until the next Congress has been seated? I'm guilty of noting outgoing incumbents as "outgoing" - in which I may have jumped the gun and depending on consensus may need to revert. Thoughts folks? Elcid89 (talk) 20:01, 13 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Take a look at Template:Infobox officeholder. You should be able to use succeeding to show the upcoming term, while using the current information to still show the current term.  That a Congressman has been elected to office (and in a new district) is, I think, valuable and encyclopedic information.  The wording in the article should show that he is just "-elect", so as to avoid WP:CRYSTAL violations, though. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 09:19, 14 November 2012 (UTC)


 * In that example above (west) Frankel is noted as succeeding West in the 22nd. I was alluding to noting it in the lead, i.e.:


 * John Q. Public (born on this date) is the [outgoing] representative for such and such district.


 * I can see valid arguments for both including and excluding the term there. Thoughts on appropriateness? If it's inappropriate I need to revert some edits, but I'm going to wait to get a consensus on that before risking any more back and forth edits. Elcid89 (talk) 14:48, 14 November 2012 (UTC)


 * I think you did right and, to be honest, I don't really see what the issue is. It seems fairly obvious to me that you would label an outgoing representative as outgoing.  Labeling them as "outgoing" before the election would be an issue (then the term is "lame duck" and whether it would be worth mentioning in the lead is a completely separate question – and one which I've never considered), but labeling them as "outgoing" after the election seems to be both a) obvious and b) consistent with standard usage of the term.  The lead would be a proper place for that information, given its importance and relevance to representative's position. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 22:07, 16 November 2012 (UTC)


 * That was my take on it as well. It's both obvious and relevant information, and aside from the Allen West article, it doesn't seem to have produced any negative response. That article has shaped up to be a POV war which I extracted myself from after unfortunately ruffling some feathers by making this change. Elcid89 (talk) 19:55, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

District maps
Am I correct in thinking that basically none of the district maps have been updated to show the current districts? This ought to be done yesterday, or the day before, if possible. If the maps aren't easily available, the articles should at least clarify that the maps are out of date. john k (talk) 16:12, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's correct that they haven't been updated. However, there is no available source of Creative Commons or copyright-free graphics.  In the past, editors had gone to National Atlas, but that site has not yet been updated for the 113th Congress.  (As an aside, I remind whomever manages to update the images to PLEASE retain the old images for the sake of the historical record.)—GoldRingChip  16:16, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I've created four svg maps for Iowa, including one marked with the results of the election, though Iowa was an easy case – our laws require that redistricting borders must follow county borders. – Philosopher Let us reason together. 11:59, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Who's succeeding who
Wowsers, we've got some House members who have 'or' will be continuing in office, but in new districts. It may take awhile, but I'll try to fix up some of the mistakes. GoodDay (talk) 19:12, 16 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Redistricting: It may be necessary, but it sure does mess up the encyclopedia. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 22:08, 16 November 2012 (UTC)
 * These corrections may take me until the 114th congress - Jan 2015 :) GoodDay (talk) 17:25, 17 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Of course, I'm only concentrating on the 2012 results :) GoodDay (talk) 17:40, 17 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Out of sheer curiosity, could you point me to an example article that you've fixed? I've got a thought for a template-change proposal (which won't be "proposed" for a few months, probably), but it needs a specific example. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 00:28, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Ben Quayle & Raul Grijalva, for example. GoodDay (talk) 03:04, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

House seniority in the 112th Congress
I've tried to fix some of the 'seniority' rankings in the House bios succession boxes, but it's become exhausting. I may have messed up some, due to the fact that 2 representatives have resigned this year. Is there anybody with the patients, to fix them? GoodDay (talk) 03:15, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

Raul Ruiz move?
I've noticed that the article name for Raul Ruiz, congressman-elect from California, is extremely similar to that of an unrelated filmmaker, Raúl Ruiz, with the only difference being an accent mark. I thought that perhaps the article should be moved to Raul Ruiz (congressman) or Raul Ruiz (politician), but I figured I should ask here first. Delaywaves &bull;&#32; talk  23:18, 27 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Indeed, it seems that it might be useful to make Raul Ruiz a disambiguation page (with Raúl Ruiz redirecting to it), and then have Raul Ruiz (politician) and Raúl Ruiz (filmmaker). Looks like you'd have to do a move over redirect, though. &mdash;Gordon P. Hemsley&rarr; &#x2709; 22:45, 10 December 2012 (UTC)