emester Project Part I: Preparing to Run
- Know your district. Go to: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/Home.aspx, and discover the district number, and who represents you either in the Texas house or state senate.
- Go to your current representative’s page and look at the district analyses documents.
- What does your district look like (in terms of population, age, education, employment, election results?
- What issues arise based upon the district’s demographics (this will help you think about your platform)
The purpose of the Semester Project is to mount a campaign for either the Texas house of representatives or the Texas state senate (not US!). Therefore, Part I serves a few purposes: it gets you to choose which, to figure out who currently represents you, and to learn about the district and the people you wish to serve. To that end, you’ll put in your address, find the legislator whose seat you want, go to his/her webpage, and read the District Analysis documents (pdfs). Also look at the district map. What can you discuss?
(1) Which cities fall in your district
(2) Is it primarily a Democratic or Republican district (you’ll need to factor that in later in the project)
(3) Is it rural or urban? Wealthy or less so? Educated or less so?
(4) What industries are present in your district? What do people do for a living?
Once you discover these things, you can start your three generic issue stands. Do you need more college-educated folks in your district? What’s infrastructure like in your district, and does it help or hinder your constituents? Is it a young or old district (if younger, education is key; if older, taxes and benefits are keys). At this point in the project, you are learning about the place and people you want to represent.
Don’t forget to cite any sources used! And remember, look at the grading rubric. This, like the other parts of the project, should be 2-3 double spaced pages, with introductions and conclusions.