Louisiana elects all its state legislators next month. All legislators in both houses get four-year terms. In the 38 State Senate races, according to this story, only one person filed in 20 races. In the 100 State House races, only one person filed in 41 races. Thanks to Randall Hayes for the link.
oh, some thing a fascist, imperial global empire would not be expected …………
Yup, top-two “open primaries” sure are great…
Multi-tier electoral proposal
– First round: parties hold their convention, with the members choosing their nominee.
– Second round: all candidates would be on the ballot and get a small number of signatues (no more than 1,000)and a small fee. During this round, the candidates would participate in non-binding contests.
When it comes to ad time, this should be as equal as possible for all. Taxpayers may decide to choose if they want to fund a candidate or not.
P.R. and App.V.
NO primaries are needed.
Equal nominating petitions for ballot access.
Yes, Demo Rep, I totally agree with you on ballot access equality and the idea of having a potential French style 2-round system.
In Chile’s last Presidential election, the Concertación refused to let Enriquez-Ominami enter the primaries with Frei, claiming that the Socialist Party already endorsed Frei. With this happening, Ominami announces his run as an independent.
In Chile’s 2005 Presidential election, the Alliance was behind Lavín before Piñera came in (thanks to many supporters from the Renovación Nacional paving his way to enter the race). The first round was a primary for the Alliance candidates to see which candidate could potentially face Bachelet in the run-off (notice, she got over 48% of the vote and if she had gained support from voters that went to the Alliance or Juntos Podemos, she would’ve won an outright majority!)
I favor a type of Apporval Voting system for U.S. Presidential elections, with voters getting to vote for 1-3 candidates, having the “set” with the most votes winning a state’s electoral votes.
It is worth noting that Louisiana has very easy ballot access. A candidate for state representative only has to pay a fee of $225 and a candidate for state senator only has to pay a fee of $300 to get on the ballot. That’s strong evidence against the idea that easy ballot access will lead to a crowded ballot.
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This is a great opportunity for third party & independent candidates to enter into these races, and possibly win.
I just wrote an article about it:
Opportunity for Third Party & Independent Candidates in Louisiana
http://thirdpartypolitics.us/blog/2011/09/13/opportunity-for-third-party-independent-candidates-in-louisiana/
Louisiana has 39 senators and 105 representatives.
It also has term limits which really took effect in 2007, such that a majority of representatives were new. With a large share of Black voters, and the VRA requirement of segregated elections, most districts are heavily Democratic or Republican. There are only 9 senate districts with at least one Democrat and Republican running.
With open seats, the open primary serves to determine which Republican is elected in a Republican seat, or which Democrat is elected in a Democratic seat, but at least everyone gets to vote. But once the party candidate is determined, there is little likelihood of an intraparty challenge at the next election. The voters already indicated that they liked the winner, what would a challenger offer?
In effect, the first election chooses the representative, and there is really no need for another election 4 years later. It is like if a company hired someone. There is no reason to hire someone else in a few years, unless the employee was fired – which means a mistake was made in the original hiring; or the employee quit or took another position, which might indicate that he was not a good choice in the first place.
For the House, of the 64 contested races only 6 are a D vs a R, that are commonplace elsewhere. And the contested races have an average of 2.83 candidates which is more like you would have in a primary in an open seat elsewhere. 27 of the 105 seats have contested races between only Democrats or only Republicans. In States with partisan primaries, it would be illegal for some voters to vote for their representative.
There are also 12 independents and even a Libertarian running.
Ryan,
Can they still file?
I thought the point of this article here was filing had closed?
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Third party and independent candidates can reach out to the average voter with the following:
– E-money: “money bombs”
– E-ballot access: “signature bombs”
The main problem with independents and third parties is the fact they have to spend thousands of dollars just trying to get on the ballot, leaving them with peanuts when they get into “general election mode”.
Didn’t Utah suggest considering e-signatures for ballot access?
A golden opportunity for all 3rd parties to get recognition on the ballot has passed. At least getting beat 87-12 would force papers and possibly television to print it, thus providing an opportunity for a 3rd party to notify the voters that they are the opposition party…
Top Two = Chokehold Primary
What is the EVIL powermadness level in the brains of the UN-opposed robot party hacks in *their* safe-seat gerrymander districts ???
The top 2 primary means something ONLY when an incumbent party hack dies or runs for another office ???
See the coming top 2 primary in CA in 2012 in the new gerrymander districts.
#15 Why would you expect voters to choose someone else 4 years later?
Did they make a mistake the first time?
Did they change their political viewpoint?
Did the electorate change?
Did the candidate change?
It is not rational to expect an incumbent to not win re-election.
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