Do the Senators and members of the House retain their seats when campaigning for President. If so, why? Are they still getting paid for work not done while running?

Senators and congressman are not required by any means, to resign while they are campaining for office. On the other hand, the campain schedule can be so busy, that often they do resign. They have the choice to choose which ever they want. For example John Edwards(2004), and Bob Dole(1996) did resign. While John Kerry(2004), and Joe Lieberman(2000) did not. And yes the congressman will continue to retain his salary even if he does not does not resign.

As a footnote, Bob Dole indeed resigned on June 11, 1996, to focus on his campaign, even though his Senate term was not up until 1998. He was replaced by Sam Brownback, winner of a special Senatorial election in November of 1996. Brownback is a contender for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination.

Edwards' Senate term was over in 2004. He did not resign, but simply couldn't run for both Senator and President. Edwards' Senate seat was won by Republican Richard Burr in November of 2004.

I should add that both Republican and Democratic senators are in Washington at least some of the time every week when they are campaigning. As a rule, they do not miss important votes.


Note: By important, I mean votes that are expected to be close, and in which their vote could make a difference. Most votes in both the House and Senate are not on passing or defeating a bill, but rather a vote on procedure. Even when the voting is on the passage of a bill, the votes of a few Senators, or even more than a few Representatives, often are meaningless.

Example: Party A holds a 57-43 edge in Senate seats, and all of all Party A are going to vote the same way on a bill. The votes of at least 6 (possibly more) of the members of Party A aren't realy needed if the vote is to be decided by a simple majority. In the House, with its 435 members, even more of the majority party can be absent and still not endanger their party's passage or blockage of a bill.

There is also, I believe, a vote on whether or not to end each day's session. Often, that passes with just a few total votes, since the requirement is that a majority of those present must vote for ending the day's session.

What all this says is that a Congressman's record of missing X% of votes is usually indicative of nothing, unless the percentage is significantly larger than anyone else's. A voting record of 100% is akin to those students in school who never miss a day. So what? Since almost every kid gets sick now and then, those kids probably made other kids sick just by showing up with a bad cold or worse. (Some of them made others sick by showing up at all. And, yes, teachers secretly hope for some students to be absent as much as possible.)