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Friday, June 9, 2006
Incumbents, don’t get comfy
Longtime legislators feeling the heat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a year when legislative politics in Georgia appears to be largely on autopilot, here’s a sobering thought for incumbents to ponder. Around the country, 38 incumbent state legislators have been thrown out of office this year, and we’re not even through the primaries.
The biggest incumbent killoff took place last month in Pennsylvania, where voters angry over a pay raise gave 17 legislators the boot. But it continued this week with the defeat of incumbents in Alabama - all three of them from the Birmingham area - South Dakota, Iowa and Montana.
What’s striking is that several of those defeated were veteran legislators, including a former House speaker in North Carolina and the Republican leaders of the Pennsylvania Senate. According to a roundup on the website stateline.org, 31 of the 38 incumbents dumped so far have been Republicans.
So, incumbents, when it’s hot as blazes out there this weekend and you’re thinking about calling off that last block-walk of the day, maybe you’d better think again.
