The Independent View: Too Many Members of Congress are Running Unopposed

If you are a reader of this blog, you know I support the concept of all registered voters should be able to vote in our candidate selection process or primaries and I support a Blanket Primary similar to Alaska's, but with the ability to select a candidate from any party or independent.

But what will happen if when you go vote their is only one candidate or only candidates from one party, where is my choices?

Days before he seeks re-election to Congress for an eighth time, Representative Mike Capuano of Massachusetts has yet to order a single bumper sticker or “I Like Mike” lawn sign.&nbap; That is not as risky as it might sound. In his district, a Democratic bastion that covers the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, chunks of Harvard University and swathes of blue-collar Boston, Mr Capuano faces no Republican opponent or opposition of any kind. His is the only name that will appear on the ballot on November 4th.

This is no novelty for Mr Capuano. After he first won the seat in 1998, he never faced a Republican opponent again, often cruising to victory with scores as 99.6% of the vote. Pondering past races, he struggles to recall details of the few independents who have challenged him. “I had a Communist, right?” he asks an aide. “A Socialist? Six years ago? Four?”.

Ever fewer races for the House of Representatives are closely fought, leaving four-fifths of that body’s 435 members with little to fear on election day. Their doomed challengers, formerly stirred to action by a mix of idealism, ambition, vanity and, at times, self-delusion, seem at last to be noticing the odds against them, add on the soaring costs of any election, and a growing number are quitting the field.

In 2014 Republicans have put up no challenger in 37 House races, while Democrats are ceding 32 districts without a fight, according to David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report.

A further eight House districts will see no contest between the main parties, thanks to a “top two” primary system used in Washington state and California, in which ordinary voters rather than just party members can pick the two candidates who compete for each seat in the general election. That total of 77 single-party House races is high by recent standards and marks a big jump since 2012, when there were 45 of them.

One-party districts cannot be good for democracy.

Such political vacuums surely cannot last indefinitely. Hopefully, voters would not tolerate a House with hundreds of uncontested seats.

Until then, the creaking of a two-party system in distress will grow louder.