The Coming Week: 1/4/15-1/10/15

Articles of the Week: Mitch McConnell and Veto

Article: Mitch McConnell

Category: Geography, Politics, Religion, and History
Owner: Giant Clam (Team 1)
Pageviews in January 2014: 21,663

Article: Veto

Category: Geography, Politics, Religion, and History

Owner: The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom (Team 6)

Pageviews in January 2014: 22,404

What's coming: Mitch McConnell begins his term as the Senate Majority Leader this week. McConnell had a big month in November 2014: he won reelection to the Senate, the GOP captured the Senate for the first time since 2006, and McConnell became the new Senate Majority Leader. 

All of this led to more pageviews on Wikipedia, especially comparing November 2014 to November 2013. These November pageviews were important in our draft. To assist with our draft, I developed an algorithm to determine which articles would have the most additional pageviews in 2015, with November 2014's pageviews as the most important input. Mitch McConnell topped the list. Team 1, led by the only participant absent for the draft, used the algorithm as an "auto-draft" and picked Mitch McConnell first overall.

It's unclear what McConnell will be able to do. In December, after meeting with President Obama, McConnell said, "I don’t know what we can expect in terms of reaching bipartisan agreement." A few weeks later, he seemed interested in making headlines in 2015, stating, "All of us from time to time make a point... But it is time now to make a difference."

If McConnell and the Republican Congress pursue partisan legislation to "make a point," expect some action from the Wikipedia article veto. Last week, President Obama said, "I haven't used the veto pen very often since I've been in office." With the upcoming Republican Congress, he said "Now, I suspect, there are going to be some times where I've got to pull that pen out." This would be good news for Team 6, who drafted veto. But the biggest winner could be Team 1, who has not only Mitch McConnell, but also the articles for Republican Party (United States) and Democratic Party (United States). News of partisan bickering would probably be bad for America, but good for Team 1's Fantasy Wikipedia team.