The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the President pro-tem in the state senate.
In the 2011–2012 session (based on the results of the 2010 elections), the Republican Party holds a 68–52 majority over the Democratic Party (including one member elected as an Independent who caucused with the Republicans and later changed his registration to Republican). In the 2007–2008 and 2009–2010 sessions, Democrats held a 68–52 majority.
The qualifications to be a member of the House are found in the state Constitution: "Each Representative, at the time of his election, shall be a qualified voter of the State, and shall have resided in the district for which he is chosen for one year immediately preceding his election." Elsewhere, the constitution specifies that no elected official shall be under twenty-one years of age, and that no elected officials may deny the existence of God, although the latter provision is not enforced.
Prior to the Constitution of 1868, the lower house of the North Carolina Legislature was known as the North Carolina House of Commons.
Read more about North Carolina House Of Representatives: 2011–2012 Composition
Famous quotes containing the words north, carolina and/or house:
“Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium.”
—Philip Guedalla (1889–1944)
“The great problem of American life [is] the riddle of authority: the difficulty of finding a way, within a liberal and individualistic social order, of living in harmonious and consecrated submission to something larger than oneself.... A yearning for self-transcendence and submission to authority [is] as deeply rooted as the lure of individual liberation.”
—Wilfred M. McClay, educator, author. The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America, p. 4, University of North Carolina Press (1994)
“Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 10:5,6.