July 30, 2012
Elections without candidates, voters without choices
By Bill Kraus
There are 16 state Senate elections scheduled this year. Five of them have only one candidate and are already settled. In another six races there is an unopposed Democrat and an unopposed Republican. That leaves 5 where it may be worth voting for one of the candidates in the party of your choice in hopes of having that candidate on the ballot in November with a qualifier. Due to artful gerrymandering over the decades only one of these five districts is considered competitive enough so either a Republican or Democrat has a chance of winning in November.
There's more action in the Assembly, but not much. All 99 representatives will be elected. Except for the 15 who are elected because they have no opposition in either the August primary or the November general election. Another 45 seats are not really contested in August because there is only one candidate from each party in the field. All 90 of them will be on the November ballot. There are, finally, 39 districts where there are multiple candidates for a place on either the Democratic or Republican fall ballot, maybe both. This number is illusory as well. After the primary if candidates from both parties contend or survive, only one of them will have a realistic chance of winning in 17 of these districts, thanks again to decades of gerrymandering deals by both dominant parties.
All of you who thought the redistricting battle was just fun and games among the politicians might want to reassess that conclusion.
There are going to be, at the most, 18 meaningful races for state legislative seats in November out of a possible 115.
Our tendency to live among people we like who like us and whose values and political preferences we largely share is strong enough to assure several candidates of a free ride in, or on the way to, the finals.
But 84 percent of them?
That seems a little high. This is pretty serious virtual disenfranchisement.
Various proposals have been made in Wisconsin and enacted elsewhere to make contests out of more elections to the state legislature. All of them have one thing in common. They have moved the power to draw the lines of the districts out of the hands of the people who are trying to be elected to those districts. All of them, to put it bluntly, remove the foxes from the henhouse.
The possibility that the incumbents who are fighting to stay that way will vote for any districting system that they don't have a hand in, that some dispassionate mapmaker is designing to meet whatever criteria the courts have put in place, who doesn't care where the lines are drawn, where the incumbents live, where the voters sentiments lie, where more districts might be more competitive (including theirs), is minimal.
But even these advantage seekers, if they were asked to change the system in hopes of reversing gerrymandering where it exists and accepting competitiveness if, as, and when it is still possible, might buy into it for the incumbents who will be in office in 2021 or 2022.
If they conclude that they are unlikely to have a dog in that faraway fight, they could safely support the constitutional amendment to take the next redistricting out of the hands of that future legislature. Such a proposal is in the works.
If you think more than 16 percent of the voters should have a choice when they go into the voting booth in the next decade, you might ask whatever candidate is seeking your vote this year, if he or she will vote for the constitutional amendment if given a chance to do so.
Do it.
Oh, yes. There are eight congressional elections scheduled as well. One of them is for an empty seat and will be contestable and contested in the primary. All the others have incumbents running and all the incumbents are the beneficiaries of favorable gerrymandering. Anything can happen in an election, of course, but the horse-trading architects of the congressional districts think they have made all the incumbents unassailable.
post a letter about this blog »
Volunteer and share your talents to unseat obstructionist incumbents putting monied interests ahead of Wisconsin's people.
Help is always needed setting up yard signs, canvassing, answering phones, making calls, hosting small gatherings where candidates can speak and get known.
Be mindful of incumbents who have served multiple terms. E.g., Tom Petri, in the 6th congressional district, has been in congress 33 yrs, and what has he gotten done? Congress needs new people with better ideas and fresh energies. The Wisconsin statehouse needs the same.
-Anton Cremer | Oshkosh | July 30, 2012
Our elections are a joke, a fraud on the people. I keep voting but the choices are always dismal.
-Fritzpatrick | Milwaukee, WI | July 30, 2012
The entire American culture, if there is one, is a disaster. So many other nations great and small seem to be light years ahead of us in the way they take care of one another. We do have our guns and some of us do have money.
-Pietr Haikuu | Hurley, Wis | July 30, 2012
current
--------
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004