In yesterday’s installment of my “Electoral Dysfunction” series, I wrote some about the vagaries of the U.S. system of politics that strands many Americans in states and districts where their votes don’t matter so much because the races in which they can vote aren’t close.
Unbeknownst to me, Bloomberg News used the same day to make the same point in a really cool series of slides, which concludes that the biggest electoral prize that will be available on Election Day 2014, control of the U.S. Senate, will be decided by the 10.8 million likely voters in the eight states that have reasonably close Senate races. That’s about 3.4 percent of the U.S. population who, because of the vagaries, will determine Senate control for the rest of us.
Even if you’re sick of me droning on about this stuff, watch the slide show, here.
(hat tip: Peder DeFor)
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And…
Old King Koch
Was a sorry old joke
A sorry old joke was he
He called for his oil pipe
And he called for his well blow
And he called for his Congresspeople to be with he
Every Congressperson got his Koch fee
And a fine salary
There is non who scare
With evil financial flair
As King Koch and his Congresspersons glee.
Close States
I do have one quibble with this graphic. There are *now* only eight states that are in close (though 538.com lists ten that are four points or less). That wasn’t true when the election cycle started. In fact, some of those eight, most notably Kansas, weren’t on anyone’s radar as a tossup even six months ago.
There is quite a bit of lock in from states that are politically decided but that can be overstated. Only 19 states (plus DC) were so overwhelming in 2012 that the losing party couldn’t break 40%. That leaves a whole bunch of states that could drift into the middle over time.