Ballot Access News reports:
Thanks very much to Morgan Daybell for helping me find instances at which independent legislators were elected or re-elected last week. It appears that independents were elected to state legislators in 2010 in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Vermont. We are still waiting to see if one was elected in Colorado. Whether this list ultimately contains 9 states or 10 states, it appears more states elected independents to state legislatures this year than in any previous year in at least sixty years.
Louisiana and Virginia also have independent state legislators, but those two states didn’t have legislative elections this year.
See:
Rhode Island Independent State Senator Re-Elected
Kentucky Re-Elects Independent State Senator
Tennessee Independent Legislator Re-Elected
Rusty Kidd, Independent Georgia Legislator, Re-Elected
Independent Elected to South Dakota House of Representatives
Independent Elected to Wisconsin Legislature
Alabama Elects First Independent to State Legislature Since 1983
North Carolina Independent Candidate Elected to State Legislature
Colorado Hasn’t Determined a Winner in Legislative Race Involving Independent Write-in Incumbent
Green Party Activist Elected to Maine Legislature as an Independent Candidate
This is another indicator of how the center is rising. People need to realize that big ticket candidates rarely can just jump in from the private sector with any chance of winning. Politics is a skill that you usually need to hone… and this crop could contain the Michael Bloombergs & Lincoln Chafees of the future.
Solomon Kleinsmith
Rise of the Center
http://politeaparty.blogspot.com/2010/11/60-year-high-independents-elected-to.html
Independent does not equal “center.”
This is in my view reasons why it’s important to push for the use of 3-seated Hare Largest Remainder elections for state representatives in the coming 6 years.
http://anewkindofparty.blogspot.com/2010/11/toward-winner-doesnt-take-all-electoral.html
dlw
Independent doesn’t mean center at all. It means persons who wish to run against the party machines in what turning into a variety of one-party states.
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For the record, I am not against party machines.
I believe there needs to be two party machines per state with relative parity between them guaranteed by the use of 3-seated Hare LR elecitons for the State representatives, as well as voice enabled for outsiders who’ll be able to win the 3rd seat in such elections.
dlw