Adual mandate occurs when an official serves in or holds multiple public positions simultaneously. This practice is sometimes known asdouble jobbing in Britain,double-dipping in the United States, andcumul des mandats in France. Thus, if someone who is alreadymayor of a town or city councillor becomes elected asMP orsenator at the national or state legislature and retains both positions, this is a dual mandate.
Political and legal approaches toward dual mandate-holding vary widely. In some countries, dual mandates are a well-established part of the political culture; in others they may be prohibited by law. For example, infederal states, federal office holders are often not permitted to hold state office. In most states, membership of an independentjudiciary orcivil service generally disqualifies a person from simultaneously holding office in theexecutive or thelegislature. In states with apresidential ordualist-parliamentary system of government, members of theexecutive cannot simultaneously be members of thelegislature and vice versa. In states withbicameral legislatures, one usually cannot simultaneously be a member of both houses. The holder of one office who wins election or appointment to another where a dual mandate is prohibited must either resign the former office or refuse the new one.
A member of theEuropean Parliament (MEP) may not be a member of the national legislature of amember state.[1] This dates from a 2002European Union decision, which came into effect at the2004 European elections in most member states,[1] at the2007 national election in theRepublic of Ireland,[1] and at the2009 European elections in theUnited Kingdom.[1]
Originally, MEPs were nominated by national parliamentarians from among their own membership.[2] Prior tothe first direct elections in 1979, the dual mandate was discussed.[2] Some advocated banning it, arguing that MEPs who were national MPs were often absent from one assembly in order to attend the other[2] (indeed, the early death ofPeter Michael Kirk was blamed by hiselection agent on overwork resulting from his dual mandate[3]). Others claimed that members with a dual mandate enhanced communication between national and European assemblies.[2] There was a particular interest in the dual mandate question in Denmark:EuroscepticDanish Social Democrats supported a compulsory dual mandate, to ensure that the state's MEPs expressed the same views as the national legislature,[4] and the government of Denmark supported a compulsory dual mandate when the other eight member states supported an optional dual mandate.[5] However, a 1976 European Parliament law preparing for the 1979 elections expressly permitted a dual mandate.[6] In 1978 the German politicianWilly Brandt suggested that one third of MEPs should be national MPs.[7]
Dual mandates are rare inAustralia. It is not permitted to be a member of anystate parliament and theAustralian Parliament simultaneously. A member of a state parliament seeking federal office must resign before seeking election to the Federal Parliament. It is possible but unusual to be a member of alocal government and anotherparliament. A recent example is DrKerryn Phelps who maintained her position as a Councillor on theCity of Sydney Council while sitting in Federal Parliament as the Member forWentworth between 2018 and 2019.
Ben Chifley, prime minister from 1945 to 1949, was a long-serving member of theAbercrombie Shire Council in regional New South Wales. He continued to attend council meetings after his appointment as prime minister.[8] However, he was defeated in his bid for re-election in 1947, receiving 220 votes on a turnout of less than 900 voters.[9]
In 2004Clover Moore became theindependentmember for Sydney in theNSW Parliament without resigning asLord Mayor of Sydney. The issue of Moore holding both positions had brought the issue to the forefront in Australia and led the premier ofNew South Wales in 2012 to propose a new law, dubbed in the media as the "Get Clover bill", which banned this dual mandate. The proposed law was adopted and in September 2012 Moore resigned her state seat soon after she was reelected as mayor.[10]
As in neighboring France, the culture of dual mandates is very strong in Belgium and that country currently has one of the highest percentage of dual mandate holders (MPs, aldermen, municipal councilors) in the world. During the 2003–2009 period, 87.3% of members of the Walloon (French-speaking) Parliament held dual mandates, followed by 86.5% in the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) Parliament, 82.0% in the Chamber of Representatives (the Federal lower house) and 68.9% in the Senate. During that same period, 76.5% of all European Parliament MPs from Belgium held dual mandates.
More than one-fifth of all Belgian MPs were mayor at the same time with, by far, by the highest proportion (40%) to be found in the Walloon Parliament.[11]
In Canada dual mandates are rare and are frequently barred by legislation at the federal, provincial, or territorial level. At the federal level, section 39 of theConstitution Act, 1867 prevents aSenator from being elected as aMember of Parliament; similarly, s. 65(c) of theCanada Elections Act makes members of provincial or territorial legislatures ineligible to be candidates to the House of Commons. At the provincial level, the situation varies from one province to another.
In most circumstances, an elected official almost always resigns their first post when elected to another. Dual representation has occurred occasionally when the member was elected to a second office shortly before their other term of office was due to expire anyway and whereby the short time frame would not merit the cost of a specialby-election. In 1996, for example,Jenny Kwan continued to be aVancouver city councillor after being elected to theprovincial legislature. The British Columbia legislature had debated a "Dual Elected Office Prohibition Act" which failed to passsecond reading.[12][13] In 2024,Misty Van Popta continued serving as aLangley Township city council member after being elected an MLA forLangley-Walnut Grove[14] and in 2025Chak Au, stayed on as a Richmond City Councillor after being elected an Member of Parliament forRichmond Centre—Marpole stating that he didn't want to trigger a by-election that cost money and that he would still participate in City Council meetings and donate his salary to charities.[15]
In the first few years afterConfederation in 1867, however, double mandates were common. In the firstHouse of Commons, there were fifteen Members ofParliament fromQuebec who simultaneously held seats in theLegislative Assembly of Quebec, including thePremierPierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau. There were also four members of Parliament fromOntario who also held seats in theLegislative Assembly of Ontario, including the first twoPremiers,John Sandfield Macdonald andEdward Blake. Other prominent federal politicians with double mandates includedGeorge-Étienne Cartier,Christopher Dunkin,Hector Langevin, the secondPremier of British ColumbiaAmor de Cosmos, and two members fromManitoba,Donald Smith andPierre Delorme.[16] Another famous example is that of thede facto leader of theLiberals,George Brown, who ran for both federal and provincial seats in 1867. Brown lost both elections, and soon thereafter began campaigning for the prohibition of double mandates.
The double mandate was prohibited from the start inNova Scotia andNew Brunswick; it was abolished in Ontario in 1872, in Manitoba in 1873, and in 1873 the federal parliament passed a law against it; Quebec passed its own law abolishing it in 1874.[17][18]
However, dual mandates within a province remained legal. From 1867 to 1985, 305 mayors were also members of the Quebec legislative assembly (MLA). The two best-known cases were those ofS.N. Parent who was simultaneously mayor of Quebec City (1894–1906), MLA and Premier of Quebec (1900–1905). Longtime Montreal MayorCamilien Houde (1928–32, 1938–40) was also simultaneously MLA for a total of 2 /1/2 years during his mandates as mayor. However, that type of dual mandate had virtually ceased when laws adopted in 1978 and 1980 prohibited MNAs from holding any local mandate.
It is common for members of theFinnish Parliament to hold a mandate as a member of their local municipal council as well. 79 percent of MPs elected to parliament in 2011 were also municipal council members.[19]
Thecumul des mandats (French:[kymyldɛmɑ̃da],lit.accumulation of mandates) is a common practice in theFifth French Republic (1958–present).[20] It consists of simultaneously holding two or more elective offices at different levels of government — local, regional, national and European — as mayors, MPs, senators, Members of the European Parliament, andPresident of the General Council in their home regions.[21] Sometimes, officials hold as many as four positions.[22] While officials may not be elected to more than one office at the same level (such as being both an MP and a senator), they may hold offices in any combination at the municipal, departmental, regional, national and European levels. Thecumul des mandats is controversial in France, being accused of fosteringabsenteeism andcronyism.
Several laws to limit the practice have been introduced in recent decades. By far the most coveted local mandate is that of mayor, traditionally a highly prestigious function in France.
A hotly debated law to prohibit all dual mandates, to take effect in 2017, was adopted in July 2013.[23] Following the adoption of the law, former President Sarkozy and other members of the opposition UMP party have declared that if elected in 2017, their party would revise or even revoke that law.[24][25] Many Socialist Party MPs and senators have also expressed their unease with the law imposed by President Hollande and might welcome a review of the law. In the meantime, the ubiquitous 'député-maire' (MP and mayor) and 'sénateur-maire' are still familiar figures of the French political scene.
ThePresident of France cannot hold any other office during their tenure, except for the position ofco-prince of Andorra, which they holdex officio with theBishop of Urgell. In practice, each send apersonal representative, the equivalent of aviceroy, toAndorra to act on their behalf.
Multiple mandates at the legislative level
Parliamentary mandates are incompatible with each other:
The2022 election inPas-de-Calais's 8th Assembly constituency was annulled because the winner'ssubstitute was already substitute fora senator.[26]
A member from one of the above assemblies cannot combine its mandate with more than one of the following mandates:
Exceptions: They can hold a third office in a town of less than 3,500 inhabitants.
They may also hold a third office as a councillor, vice-president or president of anurban community, anagglomeration community or acommunauté de communes, as these terms are elected by indirect universal suffrage, by municipal councils from among the councillors.
For example, a member of the National Assembly has the right to be general/regional councillor orPresident of a regional/general council. They cannot hold a third office unless they are the mayor, deputy mayor or municipal councillor of a city of less than 3,500 inhabitants.
In 2008, 85% of members of parliament held multiple posts[27] Following the June 2012 legislative elections, it was still the case that 75% of all National Assembly members (438 deputies out of 577) held a double mandate (often as mayor of a mid- to large-size city) and 33 have four mandates.[28] In August 2013, out of 348 senators, 152 are also mayors.[29]
Accumulation of local mandates
They cannot have more than two local mandates.
The following mandates are incompatible each other:
For example, an elected official cannot be mayor and president of the Regional Council. However, all other local mandates are cumulative. A mayor can also be a general councillor and a president of a Regional Council can also be deputy-mayor of a city.
Exceptions are the same as those for parliamentarians (Cities of less than 3,500 inhabitants and the intercommunalities)
Accumulation of mandates and governmental functions
A member of the French government cannot be a member of any assembly. However, the member of government may retain any local mandate they hold. A cabinet minister can exercise a maximum of two local mandates in addition to their government function.
For example, the prime minister, a minister or secretary of state can bemayor, or president of a general, regional or intercommunal council or sit in one of these assemblies.
Currently, over two-thirds of the members of the French government are engaged in one or two more local mandates.
The rationales for holding multiple offices are varied. Holding a seat in the Senate, National Assembly, or European Parliament gives localmayors a valuable method of tapping funds to develop their home cities and regions.[30] It also can give opportunities to curry favor with other important officials, with opportunities at each level.[31] Salaries for positions can be combined (to a point) as well.[31] For politicians with national ambitions, retaining a position in a local town can give them a down-to-earth aura that can appeal to voters. These advantages have made politicians very wary of reducing the practice of thecumul with legislation despite other moves to end perceptions of favoritism and corruption among politicians.[32]
It has been common practice in France since theThird Republic (1870). But there are also many cases of "cumul" before this period, for example, the writerAlexis de Tocqueville was a member from 1839 to 1851. In 1849 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and at the same time he was electedPresident of the General Council ofManche from 1849 to 1851 (councillor from 1842 to 1852).
There are several reasons for this phenomenon, and one of them is that France has a long tradition of centralization, compared to countries such as Germany, Italy, and Spain. Local governments have fewer powers and resources than those possessed by theLänder of Germany, or Autonomous Communities of Spain. The local mandates in France are less important than in other countries, and therefore politicians have more time to devote to a parliamentary mandate.
Thecumul is a widespread practice and has grown much more prevalent in modern France. In 1946, 36 percent of deputies in the National Assembly held an additional office.[30] By 1956, this number had already increased to 42 percent[30] and by 1970, 70 percent of deputies held an additional elected office; in 1988, 96 percent did.[30]
Many of the most prominent politicians in France make use or have made use of thecumul.Jacques Chirac served asMayor ofParis between 1977 and 1995. During this same time, Chirac also served as a deputy in the National Assembly fromCorrèze, briefly asMember of the European Parliament, and even asPrime Minister between 1986 and 1988.[31] Former Prime MinisterPierre Bérégovoy served concurrently as mayor ofNevers and deputy ofNièvre in the mid-1980s.
According to French law[33] against accumulation of electoral mandates,Yves Jégo should have resigned from one of the following mandates before April 21, 2010 (one month after the Regional elections):
But giving as a pretext a legal complaint from theFront National's candidates, he held the three of them for more than a year, plus his local mandate of president of thecommunauté de communes des deux fleuves (CC2F).
Lionel Jospin (Prime Minister from 1997 to 2002) imposed on his government ministers an unwritten rule of having no local office. For example,Catherine Trautmann stepped down asMayor ofStrasbourg (while remaining a member of the city council) to becomeMinister of Culture; conversely,Martine Aubry stepped down from theMinistry of Labour when elected Mayor ofLille in 2001. This rule was more or less upheld byJacques Chirac during the governments ofJean-Pierre Raffarin andDominique de Villepin for the 2002–2007 term, with a few notable exceptions (Jean-François Copé was mayor ofMeaux,Nicolas Sarkozy wasPresident of theHauts-de-Seine General Council); for instance,Philippe Douste-Blazy had to step down from theToulouse mayorship upon joining the government.
As of 2007[update], no such rule was stated for theFrançois Fillon government:Alain Juppé, former Minister for Development was mayor ofBordeaux, and was defeated in his National Assembly constituency (a third cumulative mandate) by 50.9% to 49.1% of the votes by theSocialist candidate. Additionally,Hervé Morin, theMinister of Defense, is mayor ofÉpaignes, andÉric Besson, Minister of Immigration and National Identity, is the mayor ofDonzère.
The dual mandate is a common phenomenon in Greek politics. SomeMembers of Parliament, by tradition, become members of the government, and appointing technocrats to ministerial offices is unusual. As a result, the executive branch, and particularly thePrime Minister, has direct control of the legislative one. Although there are some limitations. For instance, thePresident is prohibited from being an MP or holding any other office. To be inaugurated, the President's resignation is required. For mayors, governors or members of municipality councils it is unclear if they can hold other offices simultaneously with their current one. One example of a politician being an MP (1974–1989) and MEP (1984–1989) is that ofGeorgios Mavros, although it is important to note that traditionally MPs who were elected MEPs resigned first.
In Hong Kong, dual mandate is common for members of the territory'sLegislative Council, who serve concurrently as members of one of the territory's eighteen district councils. Before the abolition of the two municipal councils in the territory in 1999, it was common for politicians to serve concurrently at all three levels.
It is also normal forLegislative Council members and District Concil's members to hold position with China'sNational People's Congress andChinese People's Political Consultative Conference, with those positions appointed by the Chinese Government.
The instability caused by the close result of the1981 general election was exacerbated by the number of governmentTDs who also served as MEPs and for whom the opposition refusedpairing when they were abroad.[34] This led to further electionsin February 1982 andagain in November.
In 1991,cabinet ministers andjunior ministers were prohibited from serving aslocal councillors.[35] The prohibition was extended to otherOireachtas members by the Local Government (No. 2) Act 2003, an amendment to theLocal Government Act 2001.[36] Attempts to include it in the 2001 Act failed after a rebellion byFianna Fáilbackbenchers;[37] the 2003 Act passed after a compensation package was agreed for those losing out.[38]
The 2001 Act prohibited being a member of multiple county or city councils, or multipletown councils, or both a town and city council.[39]Brian O'Shea was a member of bothWaterford City Council andWaterford County Council until 1993. County councillors were allowed to sit on a town council,[40] and many did so. The 2003 Act provided that a candidate elected simultaneously to a forbidden combination of local councils has three days to choose which seat to take up, with the other or others then being considered vacant.[41] TheLocal Government Reform Act 2014 abolished town councils and instead subdivided most counties intomunicipal districts; the county council's members are the district councillors for all districts within the county.[42][43]
Dual mandate is common inMalaysia. According to theFederal Constitution, a Member of Parliament (MP), whether elected to theDewan Rakyat or appointed to theDewan Negara, cannot hold membership in both houses of theParliament. However, an MP may be elected as member of aState Legislative Assembly (MLA) at the same time. Consequently, an MP may be appointed to the State Cabinet through appointment as a nominated MLA while an MLA may be appointed as Minister or Deputy Minister in theFederal Government due to having membership in the Parliament.
Dual mandates are banned in thePhilippines, based on Article VI, sections 13 and 14, and Article VII, section 13 of the constitution. As elections are synchronized, politicians run on just one position. In cases where a politician is elected or appointed to a new office while serving, the politician will have to vacate the prior office before taking office to the new one. An example includesMark Villar who vacated his newly won congressional seat in order to becomeSecretary of Public Works and Highways in 2016.[44]
InPoland, dual mandate is mostly limited to combining the role of a member of parliament with positions of minister or vice-minister (state secretary).
According to Art. 102-108 of thePolish Constitution, members of both houses of parliament are barred from holding employment in government administration (with the exception of roles as members of the Council of Ministers and state secretaries), in the Chancellery of the Sejm, the Chancellery of the Senate and the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland. Moreover, judges, public prosecutors, civil servants, soldiers in active military service, police officers and state security service officers may not hold a parliament mandate. Members of both houses of parliament are also barred from holding the office of president of the National Bank of Poland, the President of the Supreme Audit Office, the Ombudsman, the Ombudsman for Children and their deputies, a member of the Monetary Policy Council, a member of the National Broadcasting Council, or an ambassador.
On a statutory level, members of both houses of parliament are also barred from being members of councils of local government on all levels, or from holding the position ofvoivode or vice-voivode. They are also barred from running a business which makes use of public or communal property.
Per theSpanish Constitution, legislators in theregional assemblies of theAutonomous Communities are barred from being elected to a seat in theCongress of Deputies, the lower house of theCortes Generales. More precisely, regional legislators can run for the seat, but if elected they must choose between the regional and national parliaments. Nevertheless, members of lower tiers of the Spanish decentralized structure, such as provincial councillors or members of local councils, including mayors, can and have held seats in the Congress of Deputies. The rule barring regional legislators does not apply to the upper house of the Cortes, theSenate: in fact, regional legislatures are entitled to appoint a varying number of members from their ranks to the Senate, according to the population of the region. Currently, the Autonomous Communities appoint 56 Senators, the other 208 being directly elected ingeneral elections.
Government ministers exercised dual mandate as sitting members of theGrand National Assembly until the Turkish constitution was amended to replace theparliamentary system following the2017 Turkish constitutional referendum. The newpresidential system prohibits cabinet ministers and other members of the executive branch from sitting in the Grand National Assembly.[45]
At the EU level, prior to the2009 European Parliament elections, there were a small number ofmembers of the European Parliament who were also members of theHouse of Lords.[46] However, it is now European law that a member of theEuropean Parliament (MEP) may not be a member of the legislature of amember state.[1] This, with regard to the United Kingdom, therefore applied to the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as the constituent bodies forming that member state's legislature. As it is impossible to disclaim alife peerage, it was ruled that peers (who sit as members of the House of Lords) had to take a "leave of absence" from the Lords in order to be an MEP; this was also the procedure for when a peer is the UK'sEuropean Commissioner, which was in recent times usually the case. The UKwithdrew from the EU on January 31, 2020, ending British representation in the European Parliament.
There have been members of theHouse of Commons also holding seats in theScottish Parliament,Welsh Parliament, orNorthern Ireland Assembly.
The November 2009 report by theCommittee on Standards in Public Life intothe controversy surrounding MPs' expenses noted that "double jobbing" was "unusually ingrained in the political culture" of Northern Ireland, where 16 of 18 MPs were Stormont MLAs, compared to one Scottish MP being an MSP (First MinisterAlex Salmond), and no Welsh MPs being AMs.[47] The 2009 report recommended a ban with effect from the2011 Stormont elections,[47] which Northern Ireland parties vetoed.[47] In 2012Sinn Féin committed to end dual jobbing, withDeputy First MinisterMartin McGuinness resigning his Westminster seat in 2013.[48][49] Stormont parties agreed to theNorthern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014's prohibiting MLAs holding seats in the Westminster Commons, orDáil Éireann in Dublin, with effect fromthe next Stormont election (postponed from 2015 to 2016).[47][50] In January 2022 the UK government planned to suspend the prohibition from the2022 Assembly election until the2024 United Kingdom general election;[51] when the other Stormont parties objected that this favouredDUP leaderJeffrey Donaldson, the plan was withdrawn.[52] Donaldson won a seat at Stormont but nominatedEmma Little-Pengelly to fill it, while he kept his Westminster seat instead.[53]
TheWales Act 2014 also applied a similar restriction on the then National Assembly for Wales (now theSenedd or Welsh Parliament) as from the Assembly election in 2016.[54]
It remains possible for members of the Scottish Parliament to be members of the UK Parliament: prominent MSPs includingAlex Salmond,John Swinney,Margaret Curran, andCathy Jamieson have simultaneously held seats in Holyrood and Westminster.[55] The system came under scrutiny in the 2020s, with former leader of theScottish ConservativesDouglas Ross facing criticism for double jobbing as the MP forMoray and the MSP for theHighlands and Islands from 2021 to 2024.[56] TheScottish National Party Westminster leaderStephen Flynn stated in November 2024 that he would aim to hold a dual mandate by seeking election as MSP forAberdeen South and North Kincardine while still serving as MP forAberdeen South. However, due to internal party opposition, he announced he would not seek election to the Scottish Parliament while also being an MP.[57] In December 2024, the Scottish Parliament unanimously backed an amendment to the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill that would prohibit MSPs from also sitting as MPs or peers.[58]
In circumstances other than theGreater Manchester andWest Yorkshire mayoralties, UK law does not prohibit a member of the House of Commons or the House of Lords from being simultaneously a mayor or council leader.[59] They are also not allowed to serve as a councillor for a constituent council if elected as a directly elected mayor.[60] ThusKen Livingstone remained MP forBrent East until the dissolution of Parliament despite his election asMayor of London a year before.[61]Boris Johnson resigned his seat as MP forHenley on being elected mayor in 2008, but became an MP again in 2015, a year prior to the end of his second term as mayor (he did not seek a third term).Sadiq Khan, elected as the Labour mayor in the2016 election, resigned his seat as MP forTooting soon after his election to the mayoralty.[62] Numerous members of theHouse of Lords however hold positions in local government.
At a lower level, it is common for people to hold seats on botha district council and a county council. Several MPs have also retained their council seats, most often until the expiration of their terms;Mike Hancock simultaneously held a council seat and a seat in Parliament between his election to Parliament in 1997 and his defeat in the local elections in 2014.
TheUnited States Constitution prohibits members of the Senate or House from holding positions within the Executive Branch (Art. I, Sec. 6, cl. 2), and limits the president to his salary as chief executive, saying he may not "receive... any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them" (Art. II, Sec. 1, cl. 7). However, the Constitution places no restrictions that would prevent state or local office holders from simultaneously holding office in any branch of the federal government.
Historically, the U.S. inherited many basic political traditions fromGreat Britain, which in the eighteenth century tolerated several different forms of dual mandate. Following the establishment of the originalContinental Congress and laterConfederation Congress, the states possessed absolute discretion in regards to how delegates were chosen to serve, and it became common for state legislatures to appoint members from within their own ranks to Congress. At the time, this was a largely uncontroversial practise since it was widely assumed that the Congress would have relatively little to do (especially in peacetime) and that most of the consequential decision-making would take place at the state and local levels. A ban on dual mandates would therefore have been widely seen as unnecessary and unwelcome as it would have effectively barred Congressional delegates from what were perceived to be more important political posts, thus making election to the national Congress (already seen as a considerable burden due to the difficulties of eighteenth century travel) quite undesirable.
During theconvention that established the present U.S. constitution, attention was primarily given to designing a federal government with branches that would be able operate independently of each other and free of undesirable foreign influence, which resulted in the aforementioned prohibitions. Barring state and local officials from federal office was not seriously debated. If it had been, it would likely have been fiercely opposed especially by the nascentanti-Federalist movement, many of whose members were keen to ensure that state officials with a vested interest in defendingstates' rights would be allowed to also serve simultaneously at the federal level, especially in Congress.
For the first few decades after theFirst United States Congress convened in 1789, Congress met infrequently and some states endeavored to accommodate dual mandates by holding their legislative sessions at times that would not conflict with Congressional sessions. Eventually, as the federal government grew in importance, Congress came to be seen as a source of great power. This created the potential for conflicts of interest and made it increasingly difficult to justify the holding of mandates at different levels of government to voters. In a closely related development, Congress began meeting more frequently than originally intended, which eventually made it impractical in most states for one person to serve simultaneously in the state and federal governments.
In time, the vast majority of states banned dual state and federal mandates. Today, the practice is forbidden by manystate constitutions of manyU.S. states, but as of January 2018 it was still legal inConnecticut, only for municipal offices.[63] Unlike many other attempts at the state level intended to place additional restrictions besides those in the U.S. Constitution regarding who can represent them in Congress, most of which have been ruled unconstitutional by theUnited States Supreme Court, state-originated bans on dual mandates are constitutional because their prohibitions technically restrict who is allowed to serve at the state and/or local level (i.e. they typically place some sort ofde jure prohibition barring federal officials from simultaneously serving at the state and/or local levels, resulting in ade facto prohibition on the reverse arrangement occurring).
Unlike many federations, U.S. states do not generally restrict state or federal officials from seeking office at another level of government without resigning their existing offices first. For example, in the fourU.S. presidential elections contested from1988 to2000 inclusive, three sitting state governors were nominated for the presidency. These wereMichael Dukakis in 1988,Bill Clinton in1992 andGeorge W. Bush in 2000. Dukakis remained Governor of Massachusetts following his defeat in the presidential election while Clinton and Bush, once elected president, promptly resigned their respective Arkansas and Texas governorships. Elsewhere, serving state officials often seek federal office, one prominent example being Illinois State SenatorBarack Obama's election to theUnited States Senate in 2004 – Obama quickly resigned from the Illinois Senate after being elected to the U.S. Senate despite not being legally required to do so, and served as a U.S. senator until 2008 when he waselected president. Also, it is not uncommon for sitting federal officials to contest election to state offices, although in these cases the office sought is usually one of the state's highest political posts, typically governor – one such recent example beingMike Pence, who was a sitting U.S. Representative when he was first elected to the office ofGovernor of Indiana.
Also typically permitted is for one person to seek multiple offices at the same level of government in the same election, although attempting to simultaneously seek multiple offices in the same branch of government (e.g. a sitting U.S. Representative seeking re-election to the Houseand election to the U.S. Senate) is severely frowned on and prohibited in many states (the constitutionality of these prohibitions is uncertain). Recent examples include the 2000, 2008, and 2012 presidential elections where SenatorsJoe Lieberman,Joe Biden and RepresentativePaul Ryan respectively sought re-election and election to the vice presidency – only Biden was successfully elected vice president, but all three were re-elected to the offices in which they were the incumbents.
In August 2008,Governor of IllinoisRod Blagojevich proposed legislation that would prohibit dual-office holding as part of changes to the state's ethics bill, stating that "dual government employment creates the potential for a conflict of interest because a legislator's duties to his or her constituents and his or her public employer are not always consistent." Critics, such as RepresentativeSusana Mendoza, called the actions "spite" on the part of the governor.[64]
Fulfilling a campaign pledge that he had made when first running for theNew Jersey Legislature,Jack Sinagra sponsored a bill passed by theNew Jersey Senate in 1992 that would ban the practice. At the time that the legislation first passed, there were some twenty elected officials who served in the New Jersey Legislature and another elected office, including AssemblymanBill Pascrell, who was also mayor ofPaterson, New Jersey; State SenatorRonald Rice, who also served on theNewark City Council; and AssemblymanJohn E. Rooney, who was also mayor ofNorthvale. These officials protested the proposed ban as interfering with the will of voters to elect officials as they see fit.[65] A newspaper called former State senatorWayne R. Bryant the "king of double dipping" because he was collecting salaries from as many as four public jobs he held simultaneously.[66]
Governor of New JerseyJon Corzine signed legislation in September 2007 that banned the practice statewide, but those holding multiple offices as of February 1, 2008, including 19 state legislators, were grandfathered into the system and allowed to retain their positions.[67] As of January 2024, only three of the nineteen (listed in bold) continue to hold a dual mandate.[68]
Senators:
Assembly members:
In February 2001,Jean Schmidt introduced legislation in theOhio House of Representatives that would forbid public officials from receiving a government pension while still serving in office.[73]
Sir Peter's own election agent has stated categorically that he died from pressure and overwork caused by his dual mandate as an MP at Westminster and a member in Strasbourg.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)The councillor lobby which stymied Noel Dempsey's plans to end the dual mandate
The Local Government Bill 2000 proposed to abolish the dual mandate but the Act dropped the idea, only for it to be re-introduced — with a handy €12,800 sweetener — in 2003.