Republican Mayor Greg Ballard came into office in 2007 as a sign of GOP hope in Indiana's largest city, pulling a shocker by defeating a two-term incumbent mayor Bart Peterson (D) and bringing in a Republican-controlled city-county council with him. But this is still Indianapolis. His most likely opponent is Democrat Melina Kennedy, who was a deputy mayor under Peterson.Cillizza's number one race to watch is the Kentucky governor's race where Gov. Steve Beshear (D) is seeking re-election. The Chicago mayor's race comes in second. I think Rahm Emanuel has that race pretty much in the bag after surviving his residency challenge. His primary opponents will split the black and Hispanic votes, paving the way for an easy primary win. Both Chicago newspapers are doing their darnedest to discredit Emanuel's opponents. Cillizza is also watching state legislative races in several southern states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia. The Republican Party experienced a major resurgence in the South in the 2008 race, capturing control of many State Houses in the South. Following the election, scores of Democratic lawmakers switched their allegiance to the Republican Party further strengthening the party in this region.
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Fix Rates Indy Mayor's Race As One Of Country's Top 10 Races
The Fix's Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post is rating the Indianapolis mayor's race as one of the top 10 races of 2011 to watch. Cillizza rates the race 5th on his list of 10 races:
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8 comments:
I thought the Chicago Mayoral election is a non-partisan election like they do in Louisiana.
Nope.
Wiki says I am right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_mayoral_election,_2011
In fact, Chicago has had non partisan mayoral elections for some time. There are no primaries anymore. Here is a NYTimes article about the election in 2007, where Daley easily avoided a runoff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/us/28daley.html
2003 was a nonpartisan election too.
Gary, I was with you but apparently it recently changed. Here's something I found explaining the process:
The big procedural change — and here we get to your question, CC — is that Chicago mayoral elections are now officially nonpartisan, meaning the candidates don't declare their party affiliations, not that there's any grave doubt. On the last Tuesday in February, the 22nd, they'll all be listed on the same ballot. If no one gets more than 50 percent of the votes, a runoff election between the top two vote-getters will be held six weeks later, on the first Tuesday in April.
Yes, I see it has changed. It has been so long since they have had a competitive race it hasn't made any difference. I know it was still partisan when Daley first ran for the office. The race was always over for all practical purposes after the primary under the former system because the Republicans never stood a chance except for when Harold Washington was mayor and so many white voters refused to support him. There were two very competitive races back to back when the Republicans ran Bernie Epton against him and Eddie Vrdolyak. Even though it is technically non-partisan, the major candidates this year are all affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Here is a site that has some Chicago election results history. If I were living in Chicago, and there were no Republican candidates running in the non partisan or runoff election, I would not vote. Even when I lived in the Chicago area (until I turned 20), I couldnt understand then (and certainly cant now) why there were/are so few GOP votes or voters or candidates for Chicago offices. Bizarre.
http://chicagodemocracy.org/ChooseElection.jsp
From what I can tell, 1995 was the old primary system. My guess is that 1999 was the new non partisan system. 2003 definitely was non partisan.
The Chicago Tribune's John Kass has long written about the Combine between the Republican and Democratic Parties in Illinois. The Republicans don't even compete in the city anymore under the terms of their merger, and they're not doing a good job competing even in the once solidly Republican suburbs anymore.
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