Posted by
CKHustler on Sunday, March 21, 2010 1:40:13 PM
So, Ive been thinking of a way to remove unwanted incumbents. Currently, our Congress has something like a 16% approval rating, yet over 90% of incumbents win re-election. How does that happen? Name recognition is one reason, campaign laws are another. All in all, people start voting for the party and pair that with the other advantages, it is very tough for a challenger to remove an incumbent. What can we do?
This idea stemmed from some discussions taking place with judges here in Minnesota. There is talk about removing judges from elections and instead have retention votes. A retention vote is an up or down vote on whether the judge should stay in office, without any challenger. If they are removed the governor chooses the replacement. Now, I am not for politicians being chosen from on high, but the retention election is intriguing.
Imagine on April 4th of each election year, the incumbents up for election must survive an up or down vote, without a challenger, or else they cannot run for re-election. I believe this allows people to vote on the merits of the candidate, rather than against the merits of the opponent. Negative campaign ads would be non-existent from the candidate, so there is no reason to vote yes because you dislike the challenger. If they don't survive, this allows the party to replace them with a new candidate. If they do survive, the election is run as normal.
The turnover rate for elections would rise considerably I think. This is just another idea that ran through my head...any thoughts?