What anti-incumbant mood? Many lawmakers are running unopposed.

NY Post ^ | July 16, 2010 | Thomas Tracy

[Scanian]

So much for that “anti-incumbent” mood!

Out of 33 potential contested seats in Albany and in Washington, there will only be 11 primary elections this year — and many of them are sure to be incumbent blowouts.

Out of the 27 elected officials representing Brooklyn in Albany, only seven are facing Democratic primary opponents. And since Democrats overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans in the borough, that means that least 20 state incumbents will be back in their cushy leather seats come January — despite everybody crying about how ineffective and dysfunctional our state legislators are.

It’s not that much better in Congress: out of our five House representatives, just two will face primary challengers.

[Scanian]

About NY officeholders but the same is true in just about any part of the country.

[piytar]

Anyone know of any unopposed donks for the US House of Reps in Texas? I will move (within Texas only) and challenge them, even at this late date. No joke.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

donks

That's not a "donk". It's a Jackass...no joke.

[Ben Ficklin]

About 80% of the US House districts are gerrymandered so there is little threat that the incumbent dem or pub will lose the seat to the other party.

In these gerrymandered districts, if the incumbent loses, it is usually in the primary.

Of the remaining 20% districts, the dems took more than their share in 2006 and 2008, so the GOP should win back many of these in the coming election

[cripplecreek]

I’m voting for a former congressman. He’s the best candidate and he’s winning.

[jmaroneps37]

In rat infested big cities there are no elections just primaries. But in the rest of America is different, otherwise what is going on in our streets means nothing? I don’t think so.

[RoadTest]

There are all kinds of American voters. At one end of the spectrum are the Tea Partiers, alert and ready to do something constructive; on the other end they’re asleep at the switch.

[ripley]

Here in New York, with such a brilliant, intellectual, really really smart Democrat-heavy electorate, the voting rules are the following;

Democrat/Socialist/Progressive good......Republican very very bad.

IMHO

[sbMKE]

It signifies a loss of confidence in the system. It can’t be reformed from within - decades of destabilization have left us in a spot where we need to act decisively but cannot.

Qualified candidates are not willing to go through the ringer just to hold a slot and not make an ounce of difference while surrounded by backstabbers and obstructionists.

[nathanbedford]

This situation does not reflect a lack of will or bad management on the part of conservative forces in these areas. One-party rule in a place like New York City comes from identity politics. It means that the left has successfully segmented the electorate and shopped the country.

Nathan Bedford's maxim, all politics in America is not local but ultimately racial, applies here in spades (as they say in New York, you should excuse the expression). Where racist politics are not sufficient to dominate, the left exploits religion, gender, and class.

The left by this practice not only deprives democracy of the two-party system, it ultimately corrupts the identity groups it purports to be helping. Ultimately, it reduces the citizens to ciphers without individual identity and without individual hope. This is why Barack Obama would say, there is no independent salvation. One-party identity politics sets up the system, and by "system" I mean the economic and social system as well as the political system, to bludgeon individual initiative back into the group. Individual initiative is regarded to be renegade.

This is an Orwellian bargain between the citizens and the party brokered by black ministers, community organizers, unionized teachers, precinct captains, union leaders etc. Any deviation from the approved path for participation in the taxable estate is a threat to these apparatchiks who will ruthlessly quash it.

Eventually, anyone who believes in a democratic system apart from the identity spoils system is commonly regarded as a fool and a naïf. This is so pervasive that black kids who study and get good grades are universally humiliated and ostracized. Apply that across-the-board, across the age groups, and across every human activity.

Result: your Democrat party.

[Cacique]

Btt

[hedgetrimmer]

There’s not a bit of difference between meg whitman and jerry brown except, arguably, their sex. No opposition anywhere thanks to the empowerment of ‘corporate rights’ over individual rights.