On November 7, 2006, voters in Kentucky’s 2nd State Senate district elected an independent candidate to represent them in the State Senate. Kentucky almost never elects independent candidates to state or federal office. Independent candidates must contend against the “straight-ticket” device in use in that state, which damages independent candidates (since independent candidates are excluded from the use of the device).

Bob Leeper won the election with 41.1% of the vote. The Democratic nominee, former Congressman Carroll Hubbard, received 40.9%, and the Republican nominee, Neil Archer, received 18.0%. Leeper had been elected to the State Senate as a Democrat in 1990 and 1994, and as a Republican in 1998 and 2002. He became unhappy with the Republican Party in 2005 and at that time changed his registration to “independent”.

The only other independents who were elected to state legislatures on November 7, 2006, are Daryl Pillsbury of Brattleboro, Vermont; Will Stevens of Shoreham, Vermont; Thomas Saviello of Wilton, Maine; and Richard Woodbury of Yarmouth, Maine. There were seven minor party members elected to state legislatures (6 Progressives in Vermont and one Constitution Party member in Montana).

Every state had at least one minor party or independent candidate for the state legislature on its ballot, in 2006 (if that state was electing state legislators in 2006, of course). The same was true in 2004; every state had at least one minor party or independent on the ballot for state legislature.