WAY too many ‘free passes’ for 2012 @ NCGA

As election filing ended yesterday, we learned that 39 of the 17o North Carolina General Assembly seats will have ONE and ONLY ONE choice for voters in May and November.  (Most all of those are incumbents, by the way.) Ten of those lucky candidates are in the state Senate (6 R, 4 D). Twenty-nine are in the House (16 R, 13 D).

Wait, it gets * better*.

Candidates for 71 of the 170 General Assembly seats will not have a major party (D or R) opponent.   This includes 19 seats in the Senate (12 R, 7 D).   There are a total of 52 in the House (29 R, 23 D).

This is quite unusual two years out from the tumultuous 2010 vote.  It also stands in stark contrast to the crowded scramble for Council of State and congressional seats.

Perhaps this is a sign of voter contentment with how things are going so far in the new NCGA.  Perhaps it is another indication of how the nature of the job rules MOST people out as candidates.  Because of the low pay and long hours, you have to be extremely wealthy, retired, or a government employee for a legislative career to make sense for you.

Cut the schedule back and get the ‘honorables’ hands off of a lot of things they don’t need to be in.  That would go a long way toward getting more residents of the Real World involved in their government, and getting our state back on track.