Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
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Uncompetitive Legislative Elections, Vol. 57,631
As a jaded, grizzled state and local politics reporter (don't I look grizzled?), it's pretty much impossible to shock me with news about the lack of competitiveness of legislative elections.
Gerrymandering has led to fewer competitive seats. Americans have sorted themselves into Republican and Democratic areas, so, even when lines aren't drawn with an eye toward creating safe seats, it usually happens anyway.
But, in spite of all that, grizzled old me found this report from Ballot Access News to be pretty startling:
Arkansas holds State Senate elections next month in 18 districts. In 17 of those districts, only one person is on the ballot. Only the 30th district has a contest, which is between a Democrat and a Republican.
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