Wisconsin
Related: About this forumHalf Of State Legislative Races This Fall Will Not Have A Major Party Challenge
Tuesday, June 7, 2016, 5:30pm
By Rich Kremer
"Half of all Wisconsin legislative candidates up for election this fall won't face a major party challenger and are almost certain to win their seat.
There are 115 state legislative seats up for election this November, but voters in 58 of those districts will only have one choice for a major party candidate. That's because either the Republican or Democratic parties aren't fielding contenders in unfavorable districts.
For Mort Sipress, a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire emeritus political science professor, it's a result of powerful new voting maps drawn by Republicans during the 2011 redistricting.
"Both parties have come to recognize that they waste a lot of money if they run candidates in losing districts and that has discouraged even the possibility of competition in many parts of the state," said Sipress."
http://www.wpr.org/half-state-legislative-races-fall-will-not-have-major-party-challenge
dhill926
(16,337 posts)is completely broken.
Nay
(12,051 posts)national party (in the case of the Democrats) won't come through with ANY money to help local delegates. It happened here in the 10th District in VA, once when voters were so sick of Cantor the local Dems fielded a candidate. This candidate actually walked the neighborhoods. I talked to him personally. He told me that he applied for and did not get one thin dime from the national D party. Cantor got $10 million from Pub sources. THEN, a few years later, Pub voters themselves put up a Pub candidate to challenge Cantor (Brat) because they were so disgusted, and local Dems saw their chance to put up a Dem to challenge the total unknown Brat.
I also talked personally with this second Dem candidate. He also did not get one thin dime from any Dem PAC or anything. IIRC, Brat got $5 million from somewhere. This guy got a lot of votes, but not enough to win. If he'd had a financial boost from ANY Dem PAC, he could have won.
Face it, local candidates need MONEY. Neither of these Dem candidates had enough money to even put out signs. Around here, Pub signs are EVERYWHERE during election season, no matter how small the election. Intersections are filled with Pub signs. If the national party doesn't start funding local candidates EVEN IF THEY THINK THEY WILL LOSE, Dems will never be able to build a bottom-up organization. You MUST invest in the process whether or not you think you will win that specific election. That's what the Pubs have been doing for decades, and it works. I don't think Dem strategists are stupid, so I think maybe they aren't very interested in building a 50-state strategy. Why that is, I'm not sure, but Dean tried and got shafted, so . . . in any case, we can't MAKE anyone fund our local candidates, so we've been stalled out here for 30 years.
Jimbo S
(2,958 posts)</sarcasm>
There was a time not long ago when nearly all races were contested. Now, in my case, I'm left to vote in the Republican primary because that is not the de facto general election. It's increasingly become more difficult to hold officials accountable for their actions.
dembotoz
(16,802 posts)no help from the state
no coordinated effort to get candidates in red areas
hell i am not even sure that state party went out of their way to let the local parties know the recruitment window was open. I think at times from what i have seen, the state party sees non targeted races as a distraction from their anointed chores.
ewagner
(18,964 posts)Central Wisconsin
Seats held by: Kulp, Spiros,Moulton, Petrowski....
No Dem has been able to pull more than 35% of the vote no matter who it was...
Gerrymandering at its finest
Last election the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senate Campaign committee actively recruited KAMIKAZE Pilots to run in these districts....I was one of them but declined.
midnight
(26,624 posts)ewagner
(18,964 posts)Some pitfalls....but interesting...
midnight
(26,624 posts)midnight
(26,624 posts)bobthedrummer
(26,083 posts)Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)oh, hell, you know how the song goes.