Voters Turn on Incumbents on Primary Day

Foreigners are always amazed at how frequently Americans hold elections, even if most can’t be bothered to turn up and vote. Tuesday was primary day in Pennsylvania and Oregon. The results suggest that incumbents of either party are in for a rough ride between now and the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

In Pennsylvania, more than a dozen state legislators lost their primary races over a pay raise they voted themselves. When the public fussed, they reversed themselves, but for all the good it did, they could have kept the cash. There were 61 challenges to incumbents, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the most since 1980. Among the hides tacked to the voters’ wall are those of Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer and Majority Leader David J. Brightbill, big shots.

With the president’s approval ratings dropping below 30%, with an unpopular and seemingly endless war, with a busted budget and gas at $3 a gallon, the American voter is fed up with business as usual. One would think this a boon for the Democrats, who control nothing of the national government and a minority of state governments. However, their collaboration with the Busheviks over the last couple of years have tarred them with the same brush.

In Oregon, the governor is a Democrat, Ted Kulongoski. He survived the primary, but he managed to scrape together just 54% of the vote. In American politics, the governor is the de facto head of the party in the state, and anything less than 60% is a sign of weakness. He had more money than his opponents, has been presiding over a state economy that is the fifth fastest in job growth in the US, and had the advantage of being the incumbent. He now faces the GOP nominee Ron Saxton, who surprised Kevin Mannix who got the nomination last time, and a possible independent challenge from State Senator Ben Westlund, who was elected to the State House as a Republican.

The Oregon race also foreshadowed another factor in November’s mid-term elections, low turnout. Although 38% of the voters voted, Oregon has elections by mail, and all it costs to vote is a 39-cent stamp. Incumbency is such an advantage in US elections now that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had greater turn over in its last 20 years of existence than America’s Congress has today. If the race looks to be too one-sided, voters won’t show up. If it looks close, though, bet the challenger and forget party affiliation.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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