Oklahoma Senate
The Senate of Oklahoma (Oklahoma State Senate ) is the upper house of the Oklahoma Legislature, the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.
The chamber of parliament is composed of 48 Senators representing an electoral district respectively. The senators are elected for four -year terms. The terms of office are staggered so that always half of the deputies are elected every two years. In odd-numbered Senate districts will be in the years in which presidential elections are elected. In every even Senate district find the elections held during the gubernatorial elections that are two years after the presidential election.
President of the Senate is the respective incumbent Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma. Since the 1960s, the President Pro Tempore care of the daily business. Prior to the President of the Senate took the lead role in the Senate, including the Appointing committees and the members of the committees. At votes he is attending today only to bring about a decision in stalemates.
The meeting room of the Senate is located in the east wing of the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City the capital. The senators gather there to regular meetings of February until the last Friday in May. Special meetings may be called only by the Governor of Oklahoma or a majority of the Legislature.
- 4.1 Important Members of the Senate
Tasks of the Senate
The Senate of Oklahoma fall As in upper houses in other states and territories, as well as in the U.S. Senate compared to the House of Representatives special tasks that go beyond the law. So it is up to the Senate, nominations of the Governor in his cabinet to accept or reject other offices of the executive branch and commissions and authorities.
Conditions for the Senator Office
Each candidate who wants to be elected to the Senate from Oklahoma, must have completed at least 25 years of age before the election. The person must be a proven voters in each county or district, and be a resident during his or her tenure there. Persons who have been officials in the government of the United States or of Oklahoma, a member of the legislature is denied. Furthermore, anyone who has been found guilty of a capital crime, prohibited from participating in the election to the legislature. If a member of the legislature is excluded due to corruption, that of the return to the legislature is prohibited.
No member of the Legislature is authorized to operate in the Oklahoma Legislature for more than twelve years. The years are not necessarily consecutive. Furthermore, the years of service in both chambers of parliament, the Senate and the House of Representatives, added together, so that the total time is determined which one was active in the legislature. An exception is made for the election or appointment to one of the two chambers, when less than a full term of duty performed there and this happens to fill a vacancy. This time is not included in the scheme above. However, no Member who has already fully served his twelve years make use of this exception.
When the restriction was implemented with respect to the term of office in 1992, this rule was not applied retroactively, which meant that the senators who were elected prior to their implementation, could serve up to three full terms thereafter. For example, the longest-serving deputy, Gene Stipe, elected in 1956 in the Senate of Oklahoma was and if there were no limit, he would have never resigned in 2004.
Representation
Old Method
Before deciding ( " one man, one vote ") of the United States Supreme Court align its representation in the 1960s, where the court verdict Oklahoma compelled, Oklahoma was divided in the following way in 48 Senator districts: the nineteen most populous counties, the latest by the Federal Decennial Census were determined, were nineteen Senator districts, each lined up a senator and elected in the parliamentary chamber. The fifty-eight populous counties were in twenty-nine "Two- County " districts joined together, then each one senator lined up and also voted in the parliamentary chamber. In the allocation in the Senate, the Constitution of Oklahoma wrote that the population, compactness, area, political units, historical precedents, economic and political interests, the neighboring territories, as well as other important factors were taken into account in the permitted dimensions should.
New method
After the decision Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 ( 1964 ), all districts must be assigned to the average targeted largest district within a five percent margin, which is dependent on the population figures from the U.S. Census and by the number of Senate districts, which in this case 48 are shared. This allows some districts to be smaller or larger than the others. The parliamentary chamber draws its own map of the district boundaries, which is subject to the approval of the House and the Governor. If the redistricting does not occur within the time limits prescribed by the Act ( reorganization of constituencies ), the boundaries are determined by a panel of five elected officials throughout the state.
Historical Draw
In the elections to the Senate of Oklahoma on November 7, 2006, the Republican Party won two seats, which led to an unprecedented and historic tie in the chamber of parliament ( 24:24 ). None of the parties had then, so that the leader of the Democrats and Republicans issued a majority in the Chamber of the Parliament in negotiations over a power-sharing in the 2007 Legislativsession. Instead of a single leader to choose, the Senate unanimously elected two Co - President Pro Tempore, who served as equal Senate leaders. No one could make a decision or appointment without the consent of the other. Consequently, it could not be two at the same time President of the Senate, so they agree declared, among them divide the term two. Since the Democrats as an additional voice still had the Deputy Governor Jari Askins, which to contribute stalemate came, it was decided that they Pro Tempore eleven months a year you should keep (August to June), the Office of the President and the Republicans only in July.