The U.S. House of Representatives returned to its full complement of 435 members as voters in California’s 10th and New York’s 23rd District filled those vacant offices.
The nation’s newest Congressmen won’t have much time to relax. Rep-elect John Garamendi is flying to Washington today from northern California, and Rep-elect Bill Owens is heading down from New York for their formal swearing-in ceremony.
Rally Congress has updated the system and will begin delivery of all messages once these new Reps. have set up communications channels.
2 weeks ago
The U.S. Senate is back to a full membership of 100 as the Massachusetts Governor selected attorney Paul Kirk, Jr. to temporarily fill late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat until a special election is held in early 2010.
1 month ago
Today, the U.S. Senate swore in George LeMieux as Florida’s thirty-fourth Senator. He replaces retiring Senator Mel Martinez, whose term ends next year.
Sen. LeMieux is a Florida attorney and former chief of staff to Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Sen. LeMieux says he will not run for the seat in 2010.
2 months ago
Florida Senator Mel Martinez, who announced earlier this summer that he plans to retire as soon as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announces a replacement, is no longer accepting constituent email at http://martinez.senate.gov.
Rally Congress will hold all messages for Sen. Martinez until a replacement is seated, and will deliver them at that time.
2 months ago
The nation is unified as it mourns the loss of a Senate icon. Edward M. Kennedy, elected to office nine times, was the third longest-serving member of the United States Senate in American history, representating Massachusetts in the Senate for 47 years. The Boston Globe has a full tribute.
Sen. Kennedy’s son, Patrick, is a Representative in Congress from Rhode Island, and his nephew, Joe Kennedy, is a former Representative from Massachusetts.
A special election will be held in sometime in the next 5 months, and the winner will complete Sen. Kennedy’s term, which ends in 2012.
Sen. Kennedy’s brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, held this Senate seat for eight years before being elected to the White House in 1960.
Rally Congress will hold all messages for Sen. Kennedy until the seat is filled, and deliver them at that time.
2 months ago
California’s 32nd District, which stretches across eastern Los Angeles, lost its representative when Rep. Hilda Solis resigned in February to become the Secretary of Labor for the Obama Administration. The seat was filled today by Judy Chu (D-CA), who won in a specical election on July 14th, and was sworn in on July 16, 2009.
Rep. Chu was previously a state assembly member and an educator— she holds a Ph.D. in psychology and a B.A. in mathematics.
4 months ago
The Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday ruled in Al Franken’s favor, ending months of litigation over the contested Senate seat. The result means the Senate will finally have a full complement of 100 Senators. Senate leaders are indicating that Sen.-Elect Franken will be officially sworn in as soon as next week.
Rally Congress has been holding all messages sent this year and will deliver them once Senator-Elect Franken is up and running in the weeks ahead!
4 months ago
Two or three folks from our strategy and business development team will be attending the Personal Democracy Forum Conference at the end of the month. The conference is a great time and a good opportunity to hear the latest thinking in the political internet space. We’d love to connect with you while we are in New York City — if you are attending the conference and want to grab a cup of coffee just shoot us an email: info@rallycongress.com.
5 months ago
Rally Congress is rolling out a new feature today— clean, black and white printer friendly .pdf files (here’s an example) of your petition are now available from a link at the bottom of the petition page.
We’ve had a number of requests for this feature. Folks are telling us they post Rally Congress petitions at work and hand them out at meet-ups and rallies. The printer friendly version will now allow your supporters to easily print and distribute the latest version of your petition offline!
6 months ago
The Obama Administration today rolled out the “Office of Public Engagent” or OPE with a new web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ope/ . (hat tip: Personal Democracy Forum ) The OPE also released a new 33-page Citizens Briefing Book with the final results of the user-submissions and votes on policy ideas during the transition last winter. The document also includes some word clouds and user comments. For kicks, here’s the “technology” word cloud:
6 months ago
