I am reading through this morning’s article on how none of our Senate Democrats are being challenged this fall while every Republican is (a realization of the 62 District Strategy in the Senate), and come across this paragraph:
The Senate Democrats hold a 13-seat majority — enough votes to pass most bills, including those requiring a three-fifths majority, such as tax bills, veto overrides and appropriations from budget reserves. With one more seat, the Democrats could have enough senators to pass bills requiring a two-thirds majority, such as amendments to the state constitution.
Um. If we held a 13 vote majority, in a 21 member institution, it would mean would have a two thirds majority on everything. Hell, we would have a three fourths majority. Instead, we only have 13 Democrats in the Senate, not a 13 vote majority. Having 13 Democrats in the Senate out of 21 gives us a 5 vote majority.
5 responses so far ↓
1 jason330 // Jul 26, 2008 at 7:16 am
Par for the course.
2 Dana // Jul 26, 2008 at 1:45 pm
It isn’t their math skills which are in question; it’s their language skills, which should be even more of an embarrassment for journalists and their editors.
3 MikeW // Jul 26, 2008 at 3:20 pm
well, when i read it, i took it to mean democrats have a majority of the seats, with 13. not that they held 13 more seats than the republicans.
4 Al Mascitti // Jul 26, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Still, it’s not very clear. Dana is right that an editor should have rewritten that. It’s much more clear to say “The Democrats hold a 13-8 majority.” And it takes no more space to say it.
5 mike w. // Jul 26, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Well The News Journal isn’t exactly known as a 1st class newspaper.
I see there’s another Mike W. here to complicate things.
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