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.

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.

Last week, New Mexico voters elected State Senator Dianna Duran to be the Secretary of State.  She had said during the campaign that she favors easing New Mexico ballot access laws.  She is the first Republican elected to that office since 1930.  See this story about her.

New Mexico is the only state in last week’s election with a Republican-Democratic ballot access monopoly for all statewide offices as well as all U.S. House elections.  New Mexico is the only state that requires one petition to qualify a party, and then a separate petition for each person that the newly-qualifying party chooses to nominate (the petition for each nominee is circulated after the nominee has been chosen).  The only minor party or independent candidate on the ballot this year for any state office was one Libertarian, who polled over 7% in a state legislative race that had both a Democrat and a Republican running as well.

New Mexico requires all independent candidates to submit a petition of 3% of the last vote cast.  For statewide independents (for office other than president), this requirement is tied with Montana and Alabama for being the harshest in the nation.