| Seeing (and some days feeling) all the excitement in this year's presidential race, I'm struck by how little effect that excitement will have on state politics.
We already know how multi-legislator districts increase the anonymity of the legislators, increasing the power of the county bosses to place and replace legislators as they see fit.
We already know that we've had only one state-wide elected state official (New York, by contrast, has four, still dwarfing the two we're soon to have) so that there are few potential gubernatorial candidates who are well enough known to contest the choices made in smoke-filled rooms.
Now I'm starting to see the odd-year elections, especially for legislators, as part of the same anonymity-seeking pattern. Very few states hold their important elections in odd-numbered years. The most common pattern is to hold gubernatorial elections two years off from the presidential years and to hold state legislative elections every even year, along with the U.S. House of Representatives elections.
Perhaps separating state from federal elections raises the profile of the Governor. S/he gets to head the ticket and have (along with her/his opponent) a nearly exclusive time to bask in the limelight once every four years. But general interest in politics is lower in odd years. So the down-ticket candidates, the legislators included, become nearly invisible.
All this seems too much to be a coincidence. I know the constitution was passed by a constitutional convention. I don't know who had how much influence on electing the delegates. Nor do I know what pressure from the media and other sources the delegates were made to feel. But all in all, the constitution seems designed to magnify the power of county bosses at the expense of sunshine and good governance. |
