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Chelsea Manning eyes U.S. Senate seat for Maryland
Chelsea Manning, the transgender U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data, is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Maryland, according to Federal election filings seen on Saturday.
[...] Democratic Senator Ben Cardin was elected in 2006 to that seat and is expected to run for re-election this year. He is the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin was easily re-elected in 2012, beating his Republican challenger by 30 points in the heavily-Democratic state.
Previously: Chelsea Manning Released from Prison, Remains on Active Duty Pending Appeal
Harvard Dean Rescinds Chelsea Manning's Visiting Fellow Invitation, Calling It a 'Mistake'
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday January 15 2018, @03:25AM (1 child)
What qualifications are actually needed? I'm pretty sure anyone with half a brain can pick up parliamentary procedure with a few days of study. Almost everyone is opinionated enough to choose a position on an issue and vote, although you could just follow the party line (Democratic in this case).
Being able to write legislation is harder. For that the senators will be delegating research and writing tasks to their staff of minions, if not allowing lobbyists to write the bills altogether. If you are in the House of Representatives you could just blend in without trying to write any legislation.
Being a state governor or even a mayor has the potential to be a much harder job than being a U.S. Senator. An inexperienced politician might not be very effective in accomplishing their goals in the U.S. Senate, but it is at least straightforward.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday January 15 2018, @07:11AM
I personally find the problem not "picking up parlipro" but rather "willing to follow parlipro" . This is a condemnation of most politicians and not this person in particular.
State jobs have an additional difficulty of not paying a high enough wage to make it worth doing unless you really care or are corrupt. Once I am debt free and have a good savings I will try my hand at local, but it is tough I imagine to be honest.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam