Ballotpedia, an almanac of state -politics, says 93 percent of Minnesota incumbent legislators seeking reelection have no primary challenger in the Aug. 14 primary.
The site analyzes state races nationwide.
In Minnesota, where all 201 legislative seats are up for election (67 Senate seats and 134 House seats), the site says that of 158 incumbents running for re-election, only 11 face primary challenges.
About one-quarter of the seats are open, with no incumbents.
Said Tyler King, Editor of Ballotpedia’s State Legislative Competitiveness Index.:
“Similarly to 2010, Minnesota’s state elections will once again be dominated by the incumbent. However, with 51 open districts there will be opportunities for new voices to be heard in the Minnesota State Legislature.”
(The numbers don’t add up, apparently because redistricting put some incumbents into new, open districts.)
The groups says in eight districts there will be only one major party candidate in November’s general election, but my quick perusal of the state’s filings in the House and Senate shows six:
In the Senate, DFLers Kathy Sheran, SD 19, and Scott Dibble, SD 61. In the House, Republicans Tony Cornish, 23B, and Joe Hoppe, 47B, and DFLers Terry Morrow, 19A, and Michael Nelson, 40A.
Ballotpedia, published by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Lucy Burns Institute, in Madison, Wis., also said:
In 2010, Minnesota ranked 24th in the country for most competitive elections according to the state’s electoral competitiveness metric. For open seats, 24 (11.9%) of the 201 incumbents did not run for re-election in Minnesota. Additionally, 6 (3%) did not face another major party candidate in the general election. Nationally, incumbents ran for re-election in 4,985 of the 6,125 (81.4%) seats up for the 2010 election.
Minnesota was also ranked 42nd in the nation in 2010 for incumbents who faced a primary challenge with 45 (82.8%) of incumbents who ran for re-election not facing a primary challenger. Nationally, 3,852 of the 4,985 (77.3%) incumbents faced no challenger in the primary.
