The good folks at Ballotpedia have released their second-annual study on the competitiveness of state legislative elections. The key finding is not heartening: More than 50% of incumbents running for re-election in 2011 face no primary- or general-election competition. That’s double the numbers from 2010 state elections, when 26% of incumbents had no challenge in the primaries or the generals.
The study’s other findings include:
In the 578 state legislative seats that are up for election this fall, 83.7% of eligible incumbents chose to run for re-election.
Only 95 incumbents faced primary opposition, meaning 79.9% of incumbents running faced no primary challenger.
There is only one major party candidate in 246 (42.6%) of the 578 contests in 2011.
Alas, political incumbency remains more protected than snail darters. And Ballotpedia remains the go-to place for complete info on all things local and electoral.