The following is the first part of Article 1 section 2: “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
"No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen..”
The actual wording of this section was pointed out to me by a gentleman from New York, Sandy Anderson, who was aware of my Citizen Legislature book. In the book I, and my co-author, propose a random selection of legislators. We do not make any effort to describe how such a solution will take place over time in the United States. To change Congress.
The gentleman calling me from New York suggested that each state actually has the power to determine how Congress members are selected. He is right.
Therefore it would be possible for the legislature or the citizens of California and any other state to choose their members using a random lottery approach. In California and a few other states this could be done by initiative without bothering the state legislature.
California has 53 members of its congressional delegation and Texas has 38. A significant number. A total of 91 members of Congress.
Both states could send randomly selected populations as their members of Congress. The members only need to be 25 year old and a citizen for seven years.
Is it a good idea?
These people would be distinct from the political hacks that occupy Congress today. Unlike the current members who orient their entire life towards their political party and spend 2 to 3 days every week raising money for their reelection, this group of randomly selected citizens would be unique. And focused on their jobs as representatives.
It is my opinion, that this new Congressional selection would be an appropriate mechanism to begin changing the Congress to a random membership. The new members from states such as California would be sufficient in size and sufficient in unique talents to make California significantly more powerful in the Congress than it has ever been.
I think it's a good idea.