A U.S. Senate backgrounder

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This U.S. Senate backgrounder may be of help to the local news media writing color commentary for their news reports for tomorrow. OK, it's from wikipedia, but this part is accurate. I use it only for convenience sake. United States Senate:

Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for senators: 1) each senator must be at least 30 years old, 2) must have been a citizen of the United States for at least the past nine years, and 3) must be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state he or she seeks to represent. The age and citizenship qualifications for senators are more stringent than those for representatives. In Federalist No. 62, James Madison justified this arrangement by arguing that the "senatorial trust" called for a "greater extent of information and stability of character."

The Senate (not the judiciary) is the sole judge of a senator's qualifications. During its early years, however, the Senate did not closely scrutinize the qualifications of members. As a result, three senators who failed to meet the age qualification were nevertheless admitted to the Senate: Henry Clay (aged 29 in 1806), and Amistead Thompson Mason (aged 28 in 1816) and John Eaton (aged 28 in 1818) [U.S. Senate: Youngest Senator]. Such an occurrence, however, has not been repeated since. In 1934, Rush D. Holt, Sr. was elected to the Senate at the age of 29; he waited until he turned 30 to take the oath of office. Likewise, Joe Biden was elected to the Senate shortly before his 30th birthday in 1972; he had passed his 30th birthday by the time the Senate conducted its swearing-in ceremony for that year's incoming senators in January 1973.

In case you were wondering, Tucson Vice Mayor Rodney Glassman will turn 32 on May 7th. Stay tuned…