[CyberAnt]

Oh boy, do I agree on shorter elections.

These 2-yr campaigns are disgusting.

However .. it would not allow the "unknown" to get known. I think that would favor the incumbent waaaaaay too much.

[goldstategop]

Really? Then explain how Ontario voters chose a challenger over the incumbent government in the space of a month. I would think the kind of prolonged political campaigns we have tend to favor incumbents more than challengers due to the cost and the time required to win. Shortening the election cycle would give incumbents less time to raise cash and put them and challengers on a more or less even playing field simply by taking from incumbents the luxury of time to confuse the issues and launch last minute attacks on challengers to keep themselves in power. It seems to me that like everything else in life, less is more is the principle that sounds better.