Election campaigns are underway for the US House of Representatives for 111th Congress. These elections are scheduled to be held on Nov 4th, 2008. All the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are being contested. The 111th United States Congress will serve from January 3, 2009 until January 3, 2011. The current composition of the House stands for 232 Democrats, 198 Republicans, and 5 vacancies.

The House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress. The other is the Senate. They are often referred as the ‘Lower House’ and ‘Upper House’ respectively, but not by the US Constitution. For the House of Representatives, each state receives representation in the House proportional to its population but is entitled to at least one Representative. For e.g.: the most populous state, California, currently has 53 representatives. Both the Houses of Congress are initiative in the passing of bills into law. Most bills may be introduced in either House of Congress but ‘All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.’ As a result, the Senate does not have the power to initiate bills imposing taxes. Furthermore, the House of Representatives holds that the Senate does not have the power to originate appropriation bills, or bills authorizing the expenditure of federal funds. However, the approval of both the Senate and the House of Representatives is required for any bill, including a revenue bill, to become law. Both Houses must pass the exact version of the bill, if there are differences, they may be resolved by a conference committee, which includes members of both bodies.

The Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach federal officials for ‘Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors’ and empowers the Senate to try such impeachments. The House may approve ‘articles of impeachment’ by a simple majority vote. However, a two-thirds vote is required for conviction in the Senate. Under the Twelfth Amendment, the House has the power to elect the President if no presidential candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College.

There are many important races contesting election for the House of Representatives in 2008. One of them is the Texas 22nd Congressional district, which has many known names standing for election. This includes former Sugar Land mayor [url=http://www.deanforcongress.com/]Dean [1] Hrbacek , former Pasadena mayor John Manlove, former John Cornyn Chief of Staff Pete Olson, Family District Judge Jim Squier, State Representative Bob Talton, and NASA contractor Ryan Rowley