Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for April 26, 2017
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
April 26, 2017: One of the ironies of American politics is that the very structure designed to place limits on the power of politicians also created a staggeringly large number of elected officials. In official Washington, of course, there are only 537 elected officials. That list includes the President, Vice-President, 100 Senators and 435 Members of Congress.
But the U.S. Constitution recognized that many governing decisions are best made closer to home. One of the basic checks on the power of the federal government is the authority granted to state and local governments. There are currently 87,576 official governing bodies in the United States. That includes 50 states, more than 3,000 counties and tens of thousands of local governments.
Those governments all require elected officials. There are in 99 state legislatures throughout the nation which require 7,383 state legislators to lead (49 states have two legislative bodies, Nebraska just one). Office holders are also needed for more than 3,000 county governments and more than 80,000 other governing bodies in the nation.
As a result, there are more than a quarter of a million city, town, and township office holders; over 150,000 county officials and school board members; and more than 80,000 elected to serve in all kinds of special districts. American University Professor Jennifer Lawless estimates that when you add it all up, there are at least 519,000 elected officials throughout the nation.[1]
It’s impossible to get an accurate count both because the numbers are so big and because they are constantly changing. But it’s amazing to consider that there are nearly 1,000 state and local elected officials for every federal officeholder. The number of local officials is even larger than the number of regulatory bureaucrats working for the federal government.
Unlike Washington politicians who tend to stay in their job for a very long time, many local elected officials rotate in and out of office frequently. As a result, there are millions of Americans who have spent some time in an official governing role.
In my forthcoming book, Politics Has Failed: America Will Not, I note that most local elected officials don’t behave like members of Congress. They are more committed to community rather than politics. That’s one reason that state and local governments typically receive much higher levels of approval than the federal government.
- April 25, 2017 10 counties voted for losing presidential candidate in last three presidential elections
- April 24, 2017 62.6 million volunteers in the United states use their freedom to work together in community
- April 21, 2017 656.4 billion dollars spent in restaurants and bars in 2016; tops grocery spending for first time ever
- April 20, 2017 2,226 solid Republican counties won by McCain, Romney, and Trump
- April 19, 2017 449 solid Democratic counties won by Obama twice and by Clinton; Clinton earned bigger margins but smaller share of vote
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia weekdays at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Click here to check out the latest update.
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Lawless, J. (2011) Becoming a Candidate, New York: Cambridge University Press. (pages 40-45)
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