64% of General Assembly races unopposed
78 of the 118 State Rep. races (66%) as of right now will have only one candidate to choose from in the general election. For State Senate, 23 of the 39 will be unopposed (59%).
101 of 157 General Assembly races unopposed for the general election.
A few of these candidates will probably get kicked off the ballot and a few more candidates might get slated to run later, but I doubt this number changes significantly.
In 2004, it was 61 of the 118 State Rep. races (52%) and 9 of the 22 State Senate seats (41%) that were unopposed. 70 out of 140 General Assembly races (50%).
Cross posted at my blog.
Thanks for the invite Rich.
6 comments:
The increased petition requirements (from 600 to 1,000 signatures for a State Senator, and from 330 to 500 signatures for State Representatives), the ban on being able to sign petitions of multiple candidates in a race, the obscenely early election and filing periods (where a challenger has to take as much as 15 months out of their lives to make a challenge) and the high cost of election campaigning have all done their share to keep good people rrom running.
I'm afraid this sorry situation is going to remain until the legislative leaders, most natably House Speaker Mike Madigan, are gone from the scene.
Good to see a Libertarian on Illinoize!
With as many political scandals that are currently brewing in Illinois (Ryan, Blago, Daniels)is it any wonder that the folks who might make decent representatives in the General Assembly are just not interested? Why get involved and take on the headaches?
Is it also any wonder that with as heavy handed as the caucus leaders have become that anyone with any independence would be interested?
Illinois is in a sad state of affairs.
We're commenting away on all sorts of issues on this blog.
This one getting little attention but it's a frightening one for the political health of the state.
It's not a good sign to have so many run unopposed.
Randall I've said just about the same thing on this subject and I agree. There was no reason to up the requirements for the primary, except selfish incumbent protection. That attitude has led the leadership to impose the worst ballot access requirements for the GA as any other election jurisdiction in the world. The worst.
Bill, it's just not a sexy issue I guess. It's extremely important for us to fix this for our future or we'll keep getting the same old.
94% of all incumbents get reelected. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
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