Incumbents’ paradise
Editorial
April 4, 2009
Winning public office for the first time may be a slog in Massachusetts, but once elected, most officials who don’t break the law can stay as long as they like. Thomas Menino hasn’t announced for a fifth term as Boston’s mayor but is the favorite anyway. As for the Legislature, CommonWealth magazine recently found that Massachusetts had the lowest proportion of contested races of any state – just 17 percent.
The lack of competition is unhealthy, especially in comparison with Minnesota. In that chilly, deep-blue state, the magazine noted, all legislative races are contested. That’s every one. There are important cultural differences: “Minnesota nice” – the state’s storied combination of optimism, politeness, and reluctance to give offense – has no clear analog in local politics here.
Yet the lack of competition has some more nuts-and-bolts causes. And at a forum hosted by CommonWealth last month, speakers zeroed in on some of them.
Campaign finance. The fund-raising advantage that incumbents enjoy is well-known. But it can be limited. Minnesota legislative candidates can’t carry more than $15,000 from one election to the next. Boston mayoral challenger Sam Yoon, who spoke at the forum, has proposed a lower donation limit for companies with business before City Hall, and a ban on contributions by municipal employees.
Ideas like these at least deserve an airing. The campaign finance system is designed mainly to keep donors from exercising undue influence over candidates. It should also be built to keep an imbalance of money from preempting competition.
A dearth of opposition. Nothing guarantees contested elections like a two-party system. Republicans are barely hanging on in Massachusetts, not least because the national party’s brand of conservatism does not sell well in New England.
But that’s not the whole story. At the forum, Charles D. Baker, the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and frequently mentioned as a GOP candidate for governor, said his fellow Republicans often don’t try again if their first bid for office fails. Baker offered that critique in partisan wrapping; more Democrats, he said, see politics as a career. But clearly candidates who are determined are more likely to get elected.
Some states have resorted to term limits to inject more competition. But that creates its own problems: lame-duck terms, the loss of qualified officials. Besides, Massachusetts governors aren’t term-limited, but there’s been plenty of churn in that office in the last decade or so.
A more important step is simply getting people to run. In Minnesota, candidates jump into races even against formidable odds, because, well, that’s just what one does. Ironically, the best way to generate more political races in Massachusetts might be to stir in some “Minnesota nice.”
