Posted:
July 8, 2004
Updated: July 22, 2004
Updated: July 22, 2004
2.2 Million Voters Face No-Choice Election
44 of 115 Legislative Races Uncontested for November General Election
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Madison - Nearly 2.2 million Wisconsin voters will have no choice in who represents them in the state Assembly or Senate because only one candidate so far is seeking a place on the November ballot in 44 of 115 legislative races, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said today. (Uncontested races listed below.)
WDC found that only one candidate is on the November ballot in 38 of 99 Assembly seats and only one candidate is on the ballot in six of 16 Senate races. In an additional seven races - five for the Assembly and two for the Senate - a lone major party candidate faces only a third-party challenger. In the September primary, voters may have no choice in 34 legislative races because there is only one candidate on the ballot. The high number of uncontested races, which follows a 15-year trend, is due in part to the large campaign war chests built up by incumbents to scare off challengers going into the election year. At the beginning of 2004, legislators had a collective cash balance of $3.16 million in their campaign accounts - about 6 percent more than incumbents had going into the comparable 2000 election year. In addition, the state's antiquated campaign finance laws make it easy for wealthy special interests to slather incumbents and candidates in targeted open seat races with large campaign contributions in the homestretch of the race. Other findings in WDC's review of legislative contests show:
"In 1970, there were no uncontested state legislative races in Wisconsin. As recently as the mid-1980s, only about one in seven races was uncontested. Now it's 40 percent," WDC executive director Mike McCabe said. "We have an epidemic of uncompetitive elections on our hands and more than 2 million voters have no say about who represents them in the Legislature." McCabe said the problem has many causes but emphasized two in particular - the overwhelming financial edge enjoyed by current office holders and partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts that makes them safe for incumbents. "An awful lot of people who have much to offer to public service have been priced out of the political marketplace. Incumbents amass enormous campaign war chests, and it's next to impossible for challengers to compete. Many of them give up before they start," McCabe said. "On top of the fundraising advantage, incumbents have redrawn legislative districts in a way that gives them a big leg up. Long before voters get to choose their representatives, the representatives have chosen their voters." McCabe also pointed to the power of television, both as the driving force behind the campaign arms race and as a primary force shaping social and political values and behavior. "TV has changed everything in politics. It has changed the way politicians communicate with voters. It has changed the way voters relate to candidates. TV has made people think of themselves less as citizens who are participants in the democratic process and more as passive spectators and as consumers who are being sold a product," he said.
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