Go Vote, Texans...In The Least Competitive State Legislative Races In The Country

It's nolo contendre in Texas legislative races

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Not much action so far on this election day, although we have folks checking out the polling places (and feel free, readers, to pass on any reports of your own).

We guess the quiet shouldn't be so surprising because, according to a new study, Texas has the least competitive races in the country when it comes to seats in the state legislature.

Running to be a State Rep or State Senator? Chances are you won't have much opposition in the primary or general.

The study by Ballotpedia looked at 2010 races in all the states having them, seeing what kind of opposition incumbents had and how many candidates ran for open seats.

You want competition: Go to New Hampshire, Michigan or Arizona. (Geez -- there are 424 seats in the New Hampshire legislature. If they all draw competition, who the hell's not running?)

The least competitive states? Delaware, Tennessee and -- at the bottom of the pack -- Texas.

So apparently we all really, really love our state legislators. Or maybe redistricting and fund-raising scare off any competitors.

Overall, though, the study's authors found less ferment than expected at the state-legislature level, no matter what the state.

"When we first started building state-by-state lists of state legislative candidates, we were surprised at the number of seats where there was minimal or no competition. It was especially surprising because many observers on the national level regard 2010 as a highly-competitive election environment," they said.