INTRODUCTION:I've tabulated a fair amount of data for each member of all ten state legislatures. The lists are in comma delimited format so you can copy and paste into your own spreadsheet.
They can now be found at:
State Legislature Report for the Free State ProjectThese lists are details about the state Representatives and Senators the Free Staters will be personally dealing with or running against. Any incumbent who won with over 60% of the vote will be a tough opponent. Those who won with 80% or were unopposed may be extremely hard to unseat.
New information on New Hampshire -- a change for the worse because the legislature couldn't agree on 400 representative district boundaries, the courts did it for them -- with multi-seat districts. Everyone in a multi-seat House district runs at large and the top vote getters get the available seats. Here is a description:
Whoever is chosen to serve in the House this year from District 86 will not be serving 3,089 residents — the number of residents that represents the ideal population for a House district obtained by dividing the entire population of the state by 400 — but will serve 21,559 residents, the total population of Portsmouth and Newington combined. The court contends the plan it established protects the concept of one person/one vote, but to our mind it does just the opposite. In addition, the costs involved for a candidate trying to get his or her message out to the residents in 11 or more communities may be prohibitive for someone running for a position that pays $100 a year, plus mileage to Concord. The result may be fewer candidates running in larger districts, and that certainly does not help the democratic process. And, finally, the court's plan further removes the voters in these large multitown districts from their representatives.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/rock/r8_2_e1.htm(though the link is likely now a dead-end)
Overall though, as FreedomRoad concludes below, the best states for access to both chambers of their legislatures are:
Vermont
Wyoming
North Dakota
and I'll add Montana (as much as I'd hate to admit it)
Number of people per representative district using 2002 population figures:
VT & NH have some mult-seat districts and all of SD, ND house districts are 2-seaters.
3,089 to 43,246 New Hampshire (some multi-seat districts 400 reps for 1,235,786 people. Detailed breakdown is on page 5 here)
4,059 to 8,118 Vermont (some 2-seat districts and 150 reps for 608,827 people)
8,230 Wyoming (60 reps for 493,782 people)
8,443 Maine (151 reps for 1,274,923 people)
9,022 Montana (100 reps for 902,195 people)
13,106 North Dakota (2-seat districts and 98 reps for 642,200 people)
15,673 Alaska (40 reps for 626,932 people)
19,112 Delaware (41 reps for 783,600 people)
21,567 South Dakota (2-seat districts and 70 reps for 754,844 people)
36,962 Idaho (2-seat districts and 70 reps for 1,293,653 people)
Number of people per senate district using 2002 population figures:
13,106 North Dakota (49 senators for 642,200 people)
16,460 Wyoming (30 senators for 493,782 people)
18,044 Montana (50 senators for 902,195 people)
20,294 Vermont (30 senators for 608,827 people)
21,567 South Dakota (35 senators for 754,844 people)
31,346 Alaska (20 senators for 626,932 people)
36,426 Maine (35 senators for 1,274,923 people)
36,962 Idaho (35 senators for 1,293,653 people)
37,314 Delaware (21 senators for 783,600 people)
51,491 New Hampshire (24 senators for 1,235,786 people))
FreedomRoad’s Conclusion:
When both House and Senate district sizes are considered, North Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming [and Montana] have the smallest overall district sizes. If you consider Wyoming having term limits and a ballot initiative process, it moves even farther ahead of the rest of the pack.
When all four factors are considered, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Delaware stand out as being the hardest to access as far as state legislative assembly is considered. These states are all hit by not having term limits and New Hampshire does not even have a ballot initiative process.
It should be no surprise that the least populated states tend to have the smallest districts and the most populated states tend to have the largest districts. What is interesting, though, is that Alaska and Delaware have such large district sizes considering their low populations.
I’ll add the following:
From my experience on a small city council (of only seven members)... having at least a second person to second a motion and get it on the floor is vital and having a few other legislators to take up the argument and press the issue is also crucial. Thus we would need insiders to lobby the other insiders. Then we would need the another two senators to move and second a motion in the Senate to take up what our people in the House started. Thus Senate district sizes and ease of access to a few seats there is vital.
With a small legislature with large district sizes, getting even one person elected would be tough and getting several would be even harder. If most of the FSP'ers concentrate in only a couple large districts, then getting those additional Senators or Reps may be harder.
New Hampshire at least has some single-seat or two-seat districts which would open the door to getting a small caucus in the legislature but the NH Senate is a tough nut with only 24 seats BUT there are a lot of first term senators who had some house experience. Thus even the Senate is doable after the FSP'ers gain some experience. This may be more doable than tackling long-term ID or WY incumbents though the latter will soon be term limited.
During the course of this research
Diana wrote:
Joe, I don't know what to make of all the information you posted about the state legislatures (most obvious recent example). You write clearly, it is the information I sometimes don't understand the meaning or significance of.
The legislature detail is for the eventuality where activists move to a specific town and thus to a specific legislator's district. Eventually, if they want to have a majority in that state, they have to go after that legislator's job by defeating that specific legislator. It will be especially hard if that legislator is an entrenched politician or has no term limits. Yes, it does become personal and that is why I posted that personal detail when I could find it. Can at least half of the legislative seats be taken away from the incumbents with a doable campaign? If not, then another state must be considered.
Examples:
Each of those contests boils down to a personal match between an FSP'er and one of those incumbents and at least one other challenger. Will the FSP'ers have the ability to do defeat those opponents? Can an FSP activist and her or his campaign volunteers take the seat away from one of the following. Note that these two examples are not the most difficult opponents either.
Leon Smith, Lawyer from Twin Falls, Idaho who is a 3rd term Republican who ran unopposed.
or
Betty Nuovo, Lawyer from Addison County, Vermont who is a Democrat and incumbent since 1981 and who won a four way race with 30.4% of the vote? (for photo and bio see the pdf file at
http://vermont-elections.org/2003BioSketchWeb.pdfIn other words, if you were running for Betty's seat in the Vermont legislature, could you beat her? If you can't take her seat and those of other similarly entrenched incumbents, could your libertarian compatriots beat at least 76 of the 150 incumbents? If the answer is yes in at least a majority of the legislative seats, then the Free State has a chance there.
Again, using Vermont as an example:
I have posted on the above web page detailed info about the Vermont legislators and the minimum number of FSP Activists which are needed to effect a major change in the Vermont legislature.
It’s not nearly as hopeless as reports made it out to be. Please see the Vermont section of the web page.
http://www.freestateproject.org/statelegs.htmNote the margins are what FSP voters could make up so Republicans or Independents could win. I realize Republicans are not libertarians, but they are not Socialist liberals either and that latter group are why the FSP’ers shy away from Vermont. Yet,
Only 700 FSP votes in the districts at the bottom of the Vermont House members list would give Republicans a majority in the House! At least that would be an improvement. The Porcupines could work on the Republicans later -- reminding them of who they owe their success to and why. Hardball politics? You betcha!
