For those of you who have seen me speak or spent time talking with me, you know that I have a curiosity and love for numbers. To play off of this curiosity, we are introducing a new Election Insights section where I will occasionally throw out a number and then briefly explain why it is important in the current political environment.
The first number to highlight is 1,359 which represents the total number of U.S. Senate, U.S. House and Gubernatorial primary and general election contests in 2012. If you were to add Special Elections (likely to be four) plus Runoff Elections, this number would be higher by about two dozen. Also, let’s not forget about the critical fights for control of 86 of the 99 state legislative chambers this year.
Some of these contests will go uncontested and many more will be uncompetitive from a Democrat versus Republican viewpoint. It is likely that only about 10% of these races will be truly competitive. While I would like this percentage to be significantly higher, we in the business community need to be wise and direct as much support to those pro-job growth, pro-economy, pro-free enterprise candidates (Republican and Democrat) in these few districts to influence elected outcomes. We look forward to providing you content, analysis, and results on all of these 1,359+ races this year!