Kansas has four seats in the US House

[hfojvt]

Last edited Sat Jun 23, 2012, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)

in two of those districts - the first and the 3rd, the Republican incumbent is running unopposed.

In how many other House districts is that true?

Let's do a survey. Check in and tell me if it is true in your state.

Of course, one sad fact is that for Democrats to win in the 1st is a near impossibility. In 2010, the Democratic candidate only got 23% of the vote. But still that is 44,000 people who did NOT want to vote for the Republican. They should have that option again this year. In 2008, our candidate only got 13.2% of the vote, but still, again, that was 34,771 people.

Further, in the Kansas State Senate, in 7 of the 40 districts, Republicans have no Democratic opponents. They are districts 15, 16, 31, 32, 33, 35, and 37. In most districts there are two Republicans running in the primary, and that will be the real contest that decides the future of Kansas. If the Republican moderates lose the primaries, then we are even more toast than we have been. There will be nothing to stop the far right project of the tunnel to the 8th century.

The same is true in the Kansas house, lots of Republican primaries. In some districts there are three Republicans running (hopefully two of them are conservatives), but often no Democratic opposition. In 41 of 125 House seats, one party is running unopposed, including 6 where the Democrat is running unopposed. The Republican only districts are (I know most people don't need this information, but perhaps the KDP can use it) - 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 26, 27, 45, 48, 61, 64, 68, 70, 74, 77, 78, 81, 82. 94, 99, 101, 104, 107, 108, 109, 113, 118, 120, 122, 123, 124, and 125. The Democrat only districts are - 32, 34, 35, 37, 46, and 103.

The hope that Brownback would face a backlash over the ultra-conservative crap that he pushed through in this session seems unlikely to come to pass. He's already got a lock on 1/3 of the House, unless moderates show up in droves in the primaries. Maybe I should hope that the moderates lose the primaries and those voters come running to elect Demorats. But otherwise it is looking to shape up as Kansas electoral massacre part II.

[Sandra14]

1. Spam deleted by gkhouston (MIR Team)

[hfojvt]

2. how can I still be at zero views?

unless my own don't count.

[cali]

3. My rep is running unopposed for the only congressional seat in the state

[LonePirate]

4. I am stunned that we did not field a candidate in the 3rd CD since we last won it in 2008

It is the most urban/suburban district in the state and it is also the fastest growing. Wasn't there a Democratic elected official somewhere in the district that was willing to offer token opposition in hopes of an upset?

[hfojvt]

10. that seems like a district we should be able to compete

if not win. I am not sure if they voted for Obama in 2008 though. Trouble is for a Democratic elected official to take a shot, they would have to give up the seat they are in. This would have been the year for Tevis to run.

[badtoworse]

5. As a practical matter, in NJ's 11th District, the Republican candidate runs unopposed.

Frelinghuysen has represented the district for as long as I can remember. There is a Democratic nominee, but neither he nor Frelinghuysen spend any money campaigning because the result is a foregone conclusion.

[hfojvt]

7. but in that case, there is at least a name on the ballot

In the last election, Herbert got 55,000 votes or about 31%.

In Kansas in 2010 we had two races, in the 3rd and the 4th where the Democratic candidate had a million to spend, and still only got 37% of the vote. Meanwhile in the 2nd, we had a candidate who spent next to nothing and got 32% of the vote. The Kansas first is basically unwinnable for Democrats, but still 40,000 people should have somebody to vote for on election day for Congress instead of having no choice.

[badtoworse]

9. I'm surprised he did that well

But still, IMO, the NJ 11th is not worth spending much on.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. You will find that there are many districts in this country that are uncontested by one of

the major parties. Some districts are unwinnable for one one of the parties.

[hfojvt]

8. so far I only find California 21st and 22nd, Oklahoma 4th and Missouri 9th

but in Missouri's 9th there was a libertarian candidate who got 22.3% of the vote. I am hoping that represents Democrats voting against the Republican and not actual libertarians. I could not bring myself to vote libertarian when my US Senator ran unopposed in 2002. That guy was even further to the right than the Republican.

[RKP5637]

11. Very revealing! Thanks for putting together all of this detail. I had wondered

how this was stacking up.

[Capt. Obvious]

12. Am I the only one stunned to learn that Kansas has 4 House members?

I didn't think their population was large enough.

Who knew

[dsc]

13. Kansas city gets one by itself

so the rest only gets 3.

[Capt. Obvious]

14. I guess I figured the rest got 1 - if that

[hfojvt]

15. Wichita is a decent sized city

there are 482,000 people in Sedgwick county (Wichita) whereas there are only 532,668 people in all of Wyoming and 621,270 people in Vermont whereas Kansas has 2.8 million people. Even Topeka (Shawnee County) with 174,709 people has about as many people as the LARGEST city in South Dakota (Sioux Falls or Minnehaha County with 179,180. The next largest city in SD is Rapid City (Pennington County) with 98,533 and the next largest in Aberdeen (Brown County) 35,154. Compared to Kansas with Douglas County (Lawrence) 114,748 and Leavenworth (74,276) and Saline (54,657) and Manhattan (Riley County) 71,069 and even Garden City (Finney) 40,998 and Crawford County (Pittsburg) 38,868.

Lawrence is much bigger than Rapid City and there are many cities in Kansas bigger than Aberdeen, some of them much bigger.

edit: SD is sort of a typical state with only one Congressional district, although back when I was a kid, in the 1980s, we had two.

[dsc]

16. looking at the map on kos

kc got 1, suburbs another, and then the rest get the other 2.

[beyurslf]

17. I didn't see the map

But that doesn't sound right. Kck is smaller than joco I am pretty sure. District one is Kck and joco. Wichita and a few surrounding counties get district 4. If they would return 4 to Wichita, newton, and hutch,it would be a urban district again but it would also benefit dems sothatwont happen.