It is hard to think of a better headline than "Elections with no meaning" for this editorial in today's NY Times. A quote:
A major reason legislative elections are becoming a charade is that the parties that control the redistricting process now routinely follow the dictum of "pack, crack and pair." They pack voters from the other party into a single district and crack centers of opposition strength, dispersing opponents to districts where they will be in the minority. They redraw lines so two incumbents from the other party will wind up in one district, fighting for a single seat. Using powerful computers, line-drawers can now determine, with nearly scientific precision, how many loyal party voters need to be stuffed into any given district to make it impregnable.This editorial is part of a series the Times is doing with the overall title: "Making Votes Count." The piece today also points out that:
[In 2002] in the United States, 80 of the 435 House races did not even include candidates from both major parties. Congressional races whose outcomes were in real doubt were a rarity: nearly 90 percent had a margin of victory of 10 percentage points or more. It is much the same at the state level, only worse. In New York, more than 98 percent of the state legislators who run for re-election win, usually overwhelmingly. Anyone who knows anything about New York's state government knows that's not because the populace is thrilled with the job they're doing. [emphasis added]The Indianapolis Star today has several stories on the upcoming May 4th primary, as the filing deadline was noon yesterday, Feb. 20th. Reinforcing the NY Times is this lead from a story titled "Most legislative hopefuls are running unopposed":
Even though control of the Indiana House is at stake this election year, most legislative candidates are running unopposed in the May primary. Thirty of a possible 200 House primary races will be up for grabs May 4. In the Senate, there's even less competition -- four of 50 Senate nomination races will be contested. That's lower than in 2002, when there were 35 contested primaries out of a possible 250 races.Posted by Marcia Oddi at February 21, 2004 07:15 PM