> Most of a Congress reporter's job does not depend on having random encounters with members of Congress.
So much for my fantasy of a reporter's life; press conferences and hearings sound boring. But I will nitpick a minor point:
> there's decent churn in Congress, making this more than a one-time or annual thing
I don't remember the rate at which incumbents are re-elected, but it's pretty damn high. Unfortunately, after you memorize them once, you'd only have to learn a few more at a time.
This election the house will have 55 voluntary departures + 2 people resigned so far. Assuming ~90% get relegated which may be high that's easily ~100 new members. It varies quite a bit but 2010 for example was down to 85% that won their races.
Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection.
They don't provide a number but eyeballing the chart, I think that number starts with a "9" over several decades, and is increasing. Here's an article that says it was around 96.6% in 2014;[0] it must be embarrassing to find yourself in the bottom 3.4 percent of any group.
(It also says House members are reelected more often than Senate members.)
So much for my fantasy of a reporter's life; press conferences and hearings sound boring. But I will nitpick a minor point:
> there's decent churn in Congress, making this more than a one-time or annual thing
I don't remember the rate at which incumbents are re-elected, but it's pretty damn high. Unfortunately, after you memorize them once, you'd only have to learn a few more at a time.