There are 43 congressional primary elections taking place today, in Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina. However, many voters in some of those elections still won’t have an opportunity to choose their own political party’s candidate. That’s because a good number of the elections are uncontested, with an incumbent or party favorite running unchallenged. Out of the 41 House primaries and 2 Senate primaries taking place today, only 17 have actual contests for both Democrats and Republicans.
Indiana saw a particularly audacious example of the kind of backroom deals that have made contested races so rare. Senator Evan Bayh waited until almost the very last minute to announce that he would not seek re-election this year. That made it impossible for any Democratic candidates to get sufficient petitions signed to earn a place on a primary election ballot, and so Indiana’s Democratic Party central executive committee got to choose the nominee – Evan Bayh’s protege, Blue Dog Congressman Brad Ellsworth.
Ellsworth’s appointment as Democratic nominee left the 8th congressional district seat open to a new Democratic candidate, but gosh, given that Ellsworth’s announcement that he would not seek re-election to that seat came so late, there was no opportunity for Democratic voters to choose their own candidate in that race either. Democratic Party insider Trent Van Haaften was anointed the nominee.
Conventional wisdom is that the lack of democratic choice within the political parties makes their candidates stronger, but so far, Van Haaften has coasted through the campaign season without much effort. “New Site Coming Soon!” has been the promise for a while at trentforcongress.com, as Van Haaften’s site only allows people to volunteer or give him money. What are Van Haaften’s positions on the issues? What are his qualifications? How will he interact with voters? No one knows, because Van Haaften can’t be bothered to say. Without any competition from within the Democratic Party, Van Haaften hasn’t been particularly motivated to get his campaign in gear.
