This is a good time to test your knowledge of the vice presidency, which is receiving so much attention in the election campaign.
Our quiz will begin with a question everyone should he able to answer.
Q. What is unique about the 1984 vice presidential race?
A. For the first time in history, a woman (Geraldine Ferraro) is the nominee of a major political party (Democratic).
Q. How many vice presidents have succeeded to the presidency!
A. Nine. John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, at the death of the president; and Gerald R. Ford after the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Q. What four vice presidents, having served out terms of chiefs executives removed by death, were elected to presidential terms of their own?
A. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Q. What is the vice president’s salary?
A. Originally it was $5,000. It was raised to $8,000 in 1853; $10,000, 1873; $12,000, 1907; $15,000, 1925; $20,000. 1946; $30,000, 1949; $43,000, 1963; $62,500, 1969; $65,000, 1975; $68,000, 1976; $75,000, 1977; $79,125, 1979, and $94,200, 1984.
Q. How is a vacancy in the office of the vice presidency filled?
A. The president nominates a vice president who takes the oath of office upon confirmation by the majority vote of both houses of Congress (25th Amendment).
Q. What vice president, appointed under 25th Amendment procedures, succeeded to the presidency without being elected to either office?
A. Gerald R. Ford.
Q. How many vice presidents have resigned?
A. Two. John C. Calhoun resigned Dec, 28, 1832 to become a South Carolina senator. Spiro T. Agnew resigned Oct. 10, 1973. He pleaded no contest in U.S. District Court to a charge of evading income taxes in 1967.
Q. What three Johnsons have served as vice presidents?
A. Richard under President Martin Van Buren, Andrew under Abraham Lincoln, and Lyndon B. under John F. Kennedy.
Q. If by death, resignation, remove from office, failure to qualify, or any other reason there is neither a president nor vice president to discharge the duties of president, who would succeed to the office?
A. Here is the line of succession fixed by law, last amended in 1979: Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate, then other U.S. officers in this order, assuming they qualify – Secretaries of state, treasury, defense, attorney general, secretaries of interior, agriculture, commerce, labor, health and human services, housing and urban development, transportation, energy and education.
Q. The Constitution makes the V.P. president of the Senate. Does he actually preside over Senate meetings as regular practice?
A. He did initially. Today the Senate elects a president pro tempore who presides in the vice president’s absence.
Q. Where was Vice President Coolidge sworn in when he succeeded to the presidency at the death of Warren G. Harding?
A. At his father’s home in Plymouth, Vt. The oath was administered by his father Colonel John Coolidge. After validity of the oath was questioned, the new president was sworn in a second time in Washington, D.C. before assuming the duties.
Q. What vice president was a Democrat elected on a Republican ticket?
A. Andrew Johnson, who became president when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.