经济学人下载:国会选举 在职者连任

Congressional elections
国会选举

Immovable incumbents
在职者连任

The Republican primaries have produced fewer upsets than expected
共和党竞选并没有想象中那么让人失望

JUSTIN AMASH, a congressman, represents one of the most conservative parts of Michigan. Pat Roberts (pictured), a member of the Senate, represents one of America’s most conservative states. After hard-fought campaigns both men won their Republican Party primaries on August 5th and now look likely to retain their seats. The similarities end there.
贾斯汀·阿玛施，一位代表密歇根最保守势力的国会议员；派特·罗伯特，一位代表美国最保守州的上议院成员。他们二人都在8月5日的激烈选举之后赢得了共和党的竞选，保住了自己的位置。但他们二人的相同点也仅止于此了。

Mr Amash, who is 34, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2010, riding the Tea Party wave that wiped out both Democrats and old-school Republicans. A staunch libertarian, he has alienated some in Congress with his stubbornness, which has earned him the nickname “Dr No”. He tried to oust John Boehner as Speaker and was duly punished, losing his seat on the budget committee. Sensing an opportunity, business-minded Republicans backed Mr Amash’s challenger in the primary, Brian Ellis. But Mr Amash whipped him, winning by 15 points.
34岁的阿玛施，于2010年首次入选美国众议院，他借着茶党的威力，洗清了民主党人和老派的共和党人。他是一位坚定的自由主义者，由于固执，他已在国会中与不少人矛盾疏远了，因此也获得了“不先生”这一雅号。他试图取代约翰·博纳成为议长，却因此丢掉了自己的职位，并在财政预算委员会得到了应有的惩罚。似乎感觉到这是个契机，具有商业头脑的共和党人们转而支持阿玛施的对手，布莱恩·埃利斯。然而最后，阿玛施还是以15个百分点的优势压倒埃利斯，获得了胜利。

Pro-business Republicans have little beef with Mr Roberts, who is 78, but conservative insurgents were out for his blood. Having served 33 years in Congress (17 in the Senate), Mr Roberts is the epitome of an establishment Republican. The main charge against him was that he had become too comfortable in Washington. He admitted frankly that he owned no home in Kansas and visited the state “every time I get an opponent”. His opponent this time, Milton Wolf, a doctor, was supported by national and local Tea Party groups, but it was not enough in the end. Mr Roberts won by seven points.
亲商的共和党人们与罗伯特几乎没有矛盾，但是保守党的叛乱者们却反对他。罗伯特已经在国会任命了33年，其中17年在上议院，他已经成为了共和党发展的缩影。对他的主要指控在于他在华盛顿过得过于舒服。他坦率地承认他在堪萨斯毫无归属感，每回去一次，都会多一个新的反对者。这一次他的反对者是由国家和地方茶党组织支持的弥尔顿·沃夫医生，但这些人的势力还是有限。罗伯特最终以7%的优势获胜。

Drawing conclusions about the Republican Party from these results is difficult. For starters, both incumbents faced underwhelming challengers. Mr Ellis’s campaign was so vicious that Mr Amash refused to take his congratulatory phone call. Dr Wolf, a second cousin of Barack Obama, ran a cleaner campaign and did better than expected. But he was tripped up when it was discovered that he had posted X-rays of his patients on Facebook along with crude jokes about them.
从以上这些情况想要总结出共和党的情况可是件很难的事，无论对于想要参加竞选的人还是在位者来说，这都是极大的挑战。埃利斯的竞选过程太卑鄙，以至于阿玛施拒绝回应他打来的祝贺电话。对于沃夫医生（他是奥巴马的二堂弟）来说，他的竞选过程相对而言比想象得更加光明正大一些。只可惜，他跪在了被人发现在FACEBOOK上用粗鲁的笑话公开病人的X光情况。

The Republican primaries in Kansas and Michigan, and others elsewhere this year, seem to say more about the power of incumbency than anything else. With just a few notable exceptions—such as Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader, who lost in June—those already in office have faced down challenges from candidates of all stripes. Indeed, Mr Roberts’s victory makes it probable that for the first time since 2008 no incumbent Republican senator will lose a primary.
共和党在堪萨斯与密歇根的选举以及今年在其他地方的一些选举，似乎在位者职务上的权力被更多地提及到。正如一些显著的案例，比如埃里克·康托尔，上一任议会多数派领袖，即在6月份落马，这些正坐在办公室里的在职者同样都面临着来自各色竞选者的压力。无疑，罗伯特的胜出说明在位者不能连任也是可能的，因为这是继2008年以来在共和党上议院第一次出现这样的情况。

But the campaigns have raised the question of what makes a politician truly conservative, a mantle grasped by nearly all of the Republican candidates. For Mr Amash it is a devotion to liberty that does not always suit Republican priorities. For Mr Roberts it seems less about ideology and more about partisan loyalty. Republican leaders in Congress have had a difficult time accommodating these competing visions. Judging by the primaries, their job will not get any easier.
但是这些竞选活动也使到底是什么使得一个政客变得保守成为一个问题，这几乎是所有共和党候选人都应该掌握的职责。对于阿玛施来说，这是一种追求自由的奋斗，而非去迎合共和党选举。对于罗伯特来说，这无关于理论空谈，而更是一种党派忠诚度。共和党在国会里的领导人一直在艰难地适应这种相互竞争的环境，而从竞选过程来看，他们未来的工作只可能变得更难。