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Democrats Are Surrendering in 11 State Legislative Districts

by on Jul. 15, 2012, under Politics

 In a year when Democrats are focused on reclaiming control of the state legislature they are conceding elections in senate and house races before a vote is cast.

There are no Democratic candidates for a seat in the state Senate in Districts 1, 12, 13, 15, 22, and 23.

In House races things are almost as bad, with no contests in five districts: Districts 1, 12, 13, 22, and 23.

What in the world explains this premature surrender? What do the wise grey heads of party officialdom have to say? Most likely the following:

1. We are so vastly outnumbered in those districts, that we judge winning to be virtually impossible.

2. Even if we though there might be a slim chance of winning in one of those districts, we can find no one to run. (No one volunteers for a political forlorn hope.)

2. Elections are expensive; we must save money for tight races.

The decision not to run is based on a serious misjudgment; it’s based on the idea that the only reason you run in such districts is to win. This is a mistake, and besides you’ve already decided you are hopelessly outnumbered and can’t win.

So, no, winning is not the point. The point is having a voice; the point is being able to criticize the other side’s feckless arguments; the point is being able to defend Democratic policies at all levels in debates and interviews. Surely, amongst all the argumentative and fiercely combative Democrats, the party should have been able to find 11 quick-witted debaters to take on their opponents.

What is to be done? If I understand election law you can still run as a write-in candidate in the primary, although I’m not sure of the number of signatures required to get on the ballot.  I’m sure some reader, probably Ms. Classen, will set me straight.

I believe the deadline for filing an affidavit of intention to run as a write-in is only four days away, so expecting some write-in candidates to volunteer this late in the game   is probably naively unrealistic.

If not this year, then 2014 for sure. And turn that white flag into a battle banner by writing “No Surrender” on it.

 

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2012 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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  • FortLowell

    Put YOUR money where YOUR substantial mouth is…….RUN for office or stop pretending to know what the hell your talking about……ANYONE can gripe incescently.

  • http://who-will-kiss-the-pig.blogspot.com/ Richard Grayson

     Filing for write-in candidates ended today at 5 pm, and as of now, anybody who filed yesterday or today has not yet been listed on the Secretary of State’s website.  You don’t need any signatures to be a write-in, but you do need to garner as many votes as you would have gotten as signatures had you petitioned your way onto the ballot.

    For a Democratic (or Republican) write-in candidate, the required numbers of write-in votes may make a write-in victory in the primary hard to achieve, even if a person did file.  However, for a “new” party — like the Green Party or the party of which I am Supreme Leader, the Arizona Americans Elect Party, a write-in candidate needs only a plurality of the vote: that can be just a single vote.  I won the Green Party primary in the old 6th Congressional District in 2010 with just 6 write-in votes and was listed on the November ballot.

    I have tried for months to get people to run as Americans Elect Party candidates in districts where no Democrat had filed (or no Republican, for I believe competition should be everywhere; you don’t mention that no Republicans have filed for a number of safe Democratic seats in the legislature).  But aside from myself, running for Congress in the new 4th C.D., and Stephen Dolgos, running for Congress (who got enough signatures to get listed on the AEP primary ballot) in the new 8th C.D., as of now, no one has filed.  Three Green Party candidates have so far filed as write-ins.

    I am in sympathy with your opinion, and I wish you had published this earlier so that we could have gotten candidates to oppose the one-party candidates who dominate some districts.  In 2006, my congressman, Jeff Flake ran for re-election without any opposition; in 2008, although my views are liberal, not libertarian, I voted for the Libertarian candidate for Congress, Flake’s only November opponent, who got 25% of the vote, man from people like myself trying to send a message.

    Uncontested one-party elections belong to dictatorships like those of Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Kim Il-Jung, and others.  They don’t belong in America.  Nominal opposition is better than none every time.  But I’ve learned that I cannot force people to run for office if they don’t want to.

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