Rusty Kidd, Independent Georgia Legislator, Re-Elected

Last week, Rusty Kidd, Georgia’s only independent state legislator, was re-elected.  He faced one opponent, a Democrat.  Kidd won 57.3%-42.7%.  Kidd was the only independent who was able to qualify for either house of the Georgia legislature by petition this year.

On November 5, Kidd was hospitalized because a small bone in his neck was broken, but he is expected to be back at work well before the session opens.  He has been in a wheelchair for the past decade because of a past motorcycle accident.

Kidd is the son of Senator Culver Kidd, who is no longer living.  Senator Kidd was the author of the 1986 Georgia ballot access reform bill that lowered the statewide petitions from 2.5% of the number of registered voters, to 1%, and also provided that parties that poll at least 1% of the number of registered voters for any statewide race are ballot-qualified for all statewide offices.  It is because of Senator Kidd’s 1986 bill that the Georgia Libertarian Party has been on the ballot for the statewide offices, with no petitioning needed (except for the party’s initial petition in 1988), for over twenty years.

Independent Elected to South Dakota House of Representatives

Last week, South Dakota voters in the 15th state legislative district elected Jenna Haggar to the House.  She is a registered independent, and is only 24 years old.  She defeated an incumbent Democratic state representative.  Each South Dakota legislative district elects two house members, every two years.  In the 15th district in 2010, there were no Republicans running, just two Democrats and one independent.

Haggar is the first independent elected to the South Dakota house since 1994, although South Dakota voters had elected an independent to the State Senate in 2008.  However, the State Senate independent elected in 2008, Tom Dempster, was actually a registered Republican who had accidentally failed to qualify for his party’s primary ballot, so he had then petitioned as an independent.

Independent Elected to Wisconsin Legislature

Last week, Wisconsin voters in the 25th Assembly district elected Bob Ziegelbauer to the legislature as an independent in a 3-way race.  Ziegelbauer polled approximately 50%; the Democratic nominee polled approximately 35%; and the Republican nominee polled approximately 15%.  Ziegelbauer had been in the legislature as a Democrat since 1992.  He became an independent because he opposes any tax increase in 2011.  Ziegelbauer also serves as the elected County Executive of Manitowoc County.

This is the second election in a row at which an independent has been elected to the Wisconsin legislature.  In 2008, Jeffrey Wood had been elected as an independent.  Like Ziegelbauer, he was an incumbent.  He had been elected in prior years as a Republican.  Wood did not run for re-election in 2010.

Alabama Elects First Independent to State Legislature Since 1983

Last week, Alabama voters elected Harri Anne Smith to the State Senate as an independent candidate.  She defeated her only opponent, a Republican, by a margin of 55.2%-44.8%.  She was the incumbent in the 29th district.  The Republican Party had refused to let her file in this year’s Republican primary, because she had endorsed a Democrat for Congress in 2008.  So, she ran as an independent, and became the first independent elected to the Alabama legislature since 1983.

As a result of the 2010 election, the Alabama legislature next year will have Republican majorities in both houses, for the first time since the 19th century.  In recent years, ballot access reform bills have been introduced by Republican legislators, and they have made little progress in legislative committees with Democratic committee chairs.

New York Working Families Party Likely to Have Received More Votes for Governor than Independence Party

This year, both the New York Working Families Party, and the New York Independence Party, cross-endorsed Andrew Cuomo for Governor.  Cuomo, of course, was also the Democratic nominee and appeared on the ballot in three places.  The election night results show that Cuomo received 138,615 votes on the Working Families Party, and 136,581 on the Independence Party line.  If the ballots that are still uncounted do not reverse that ratio, the Working Families Party will be on the 4th line on New York ballots between 2011 and 2014, and the Independence Party will be on the 5th line.  Thanks to Dan Levitan for this news.

North Carolina Independent Candidate Elected to State Legislature

On November 6, independent candidate Bert Jones was elected to the North Carolina State House of Representatives.  He defeated an incumbent in a two-person race by a margin of 56.1% – 43.9%.  Jones is a dentist who was formerly a Republican, but who left the party because he did not believe the Republican Party is sincerely interested in reducing the size of government.  He was elected in the 65th district.

Jones is only the second person to be elected as an independent to the North Carolina state legislature, since the beginning of government-printed ballots in 1901.  In 1990, Carolyn Russell had also been elected as an independent, but she had run as an independent for technical reasons, and affiliated with the Republicans when the legislature had convened in 1991.