Things Every Political Science Major Should Know

On the first day of my Congressional Elections Writing Seminar our professor asked us to answer the following questions:

1) What congressional district are you from?
2) Who is your member of Congress?
3) How did he/she vote on healthcare reform?

Being a political science major in my senior year, I can honestly say that I was semi-embarrassed when I could not manage to write down anything on the paper in front of me. After realizing I needed to do some research for the upcoming elections I decided to follow the congressional elections happening in my home state of Minnesota; more specifically the third congressional district which includes the western suburbs of the Twin Cities.

The third congressional district of Minnesota encompasses some of the more affluent suburbs of Minneapolis. Currently, the district is represented by Republican Erik Paulsen. Serving the third district since 2008 and also the favorite to win the 2010 election, Paulsen opposes the privatization of Social Security and has pushed for lowering the prices of prescription drugs for senior citizens. When it comes to healthcare Paulsen supports increasing deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. This is not something that I personally would like to see happen to the residents of the third district. Instead the DFL candidate Jim Meffert has supported the recently passed healthcare bill. Because of that I believe that Jim Meffert would be a better candidate for the people of Minnesota.