This year, 43 states are holding regularly-scheduled state legislative elections. There are 5,984 seats up. Democrats have 4,720 nominees, and Republicans have 4,859 nominees. In Washington and California, candidates with a major party label are assumed to be “nominees”, and in seats in which two Democrats are the only candidates on the ballot, the Democratic Party is given credit for one “nominee”; the same rule applies to Republicans, of course.
Because Democrats are lacking a nominee for 1,264 seats, and because Republicans are lacking a nominee for 1,125 seats, that makes 2,389 seats with no Republican-Democratic contest. Ballot Access News has been tracking this data starting in 1992, and never before has the proportion of no-major party-contest seats been so high. 2,389 works out to 39.9% of all the seats.
States in which the Democratic Party doesn’t have nominees for even half the seats are Georgia, South Carolina, and Wyoming. States in which the Republican Party doesn’t have nominees for even half the seats are Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Which of the unopposed D/R monsters in their safe seat gerrymander areas is NOT a raving Stalin/Hitler powermad clone ???
Will ANY of the gerrymander district winners be elected with less than 55 percent of the gerrymander votes — due to the New Age high tech instant gerrymanders using computers and prior election data ???
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
The real disappointing fact is that most of the seats that lack major party oposition also lack minor party/independent oppostion. If third parties ever want to gain real political power, they need to start at the bottom where it is feasible for them to actually win seats.
In West Virginia, the Mountain Party (Green Party affiliate) has had ballot access for the past twelve years but habitually fails to run more than two or three state or local candidates. 40% of our state House races are either un or under-opposed and two thirds of our state Senators are unopposed. Libertarians have not had ballot access for twelve years and only occasionally run a local candidate.
With one candidate on the ballot for State Senate, two on for House of Delegates, one on for county Sheriff, and one on for county Commission this year, the Constitution Party of WV is AT LEAST TRYING. The Mountain Party is a pathetic excuse for a political organization only running statewide candidates for U.S. Senate and Governor to keep their name and leaders egos alive. Sad.
Forgot to note that all Constitution Party and the occasional Libertarian are on the ballot by the hard work of petitioning. Mountain Party people only have to lay down their filing fee money.
Electing legislatures on the basis of proportional representation, or with large, multi-member districts could make them more competitive, and bring in a wider range of representation.
@Jeff Becker Funny you say that when the MP has 4 candidates for House of Delegates and 1 for State Senate this year. Oh and the CP candidate in Wetzel county has just as much and ego as the candidates for Governor and Senate or even you. How many times does it make that you’ve run for Governor and lost? I have lost count. Not trying to bash the CP but I don’t consider my candidacy a joke like you do. I would encourage all people in West Virginia to get out and vote. That is the only way to break the one party rule in our state and as for the MP’s problems they face the same uphill battle as any other third party. The last time I checked the CP didn’t have money to run a candidate either.
@IT – The Constitution Party of West Virginia has not yet been able to secure a ballot-qualified gubernatorial candidate, and I have never personally run for that position. We are still a very small party with only 120 registered voters here compared with the Mountain Party which has over ten times that number. OK, good that you have a few candidates for state legislature this year, but according to the SOS website, you have five, not four for House and none for State Senate.
@Jeff my mistake but still our state cuts us out of debates and meet and greets plus we don’t have the money that the D and R has to throw at elections. I do believe you are a write in for Senate in our lovely state Jeff.
This sounds like a good opportunity for minor party or independent candidates to get on the ballot and get elected. I’ve long thought that targeting seats in state legislatures was a good strategy.
@9 – to expand on that, I think that minor party members should target lower offices that are normally unopposed. It worked out to benefit the LP in Louisiana. Two LP candidates for alderman were elected by default because no one filed to run against them.
The Green Party is fielding candidates in 77 of those races. There are some possible wins out there. See Fred Horch in Maine, Fred Smith in Arkansas, Melissa Schlag in Connecticut, and Jonathan Dedering in Wisconsin to just name a few.
I will have a post up next week at Green Party Watch profiling the Green State Legislative candidates.
I have come up with an array of possible amendments to the Constitution on my blog: politicallogic101.blogspot.com . The latest idea I came up with is to have a tiered system of constitutions with the easiest to change (changeable by 1/2+ of the states or 1/2 of the people and 3/5 of Congress) being how Senators, Reps, and the President should be elected.