[RobFromGa]

There is no gerrymandering in Senate races, they are all state-wide races.

It is not surprising that incumbency is such a big deal because 1) name recognition holds off challengers in their own party and 2) people tend to vote for the same party from election to election and 3) people don't move around that much.

Most people hold "the Senate" in low esteem and hold their own Senator in fairly high esteem.

[paul51]

Scratch the gerrymandering argument. We'll save that one for the house. Your points 2 and 3 are well taken. On point one, I'm not so sure the name recognition is the main factor dissuading challemgeas in the primaries although a lot of that results from pandering with taxpayers money. The deck is stacked in favor of the incumbent in both parties and that doesn't result in the best candidate getting the nomination. I'm deeply troubled by the constant re election of the batch of clowns and losers to the congress and generally appalled at the quality of 'leaders' we have in the congress. Unfortunately, I have no answer and I have little confidence in the system that results in what we have.