Mark Foley’s Congressional Page Scandal

Research Paper - Mark Foley Congressional Page Scandal

If there is one thing that members of Congress are no stranger too, it’s the potential impact of a public scandal involving a member of either the House or the Senate. The impact of these scandals can be far reaching and very public. Many things come into play when a scandal is brought to light in the public eye. The way a party reacts to the incident is very important; many in Congress want to distance themselves as far as possible from any such scandal, placing blame on others but not on the group as a whole. Even though, many would rather see their party damaged than themselves. The effects that it can have on the public opinion and eventually Congress can play a big part in how the current Legislative Branch operates and in some cases it affects who it is composed of. One of the more recent and important scandals that shook the Congress was the Mark Foley Congressional Page scandal. The scandal surrounding Mark Foley’s illicit messages to the young House Pages was a key issue in allowing the Democratic Party to gain a House majority in the 2006 Congressional Elections.

To understand how this happened we must look at the institutions that it affected and how it played a part in allowing this scandal to impact the elections outcome. It is important to acknowledge that all of these issues and institutions play an intricate part with each other, it is nearly impossible to talk about the impact on one institution without evaluating the effects that it had on another. Obviously, in the few months prior to any American political election public opinion is extremely important to many candidates; this is the only thing that keeps them in an elected office. There are few times in history that the outcome of an election and the opinions of the voters have been directly impacted from a Legislative scandal. We expect that there will always be members of Congress that will lie, cheat, take bribes, and commit any number of other crimes. But even when a Congressman’s actions are deemed legal they can have a long lasting and powerful effect on people’s mindsets when they step into that voting both. Here we will evaluate one such instance of those opinions playing