Beyond the Obama-Romney presidential showdown and Sen. Scott Brown’s clash with Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, the statewide election ballot will be relatively barren this year.
SPRINGFIELD – They have plenty of campaign money, well-lubricated political machines and marquee name recognition.
For some of the region’s top political figures, however, something important will be missing when election day arrives on Nov. 6.
An opponent.
Proving that it can be lonely at the top, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield; state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst; state Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, state Rep. Joseph Wagner, D-Chicopee and a dozen others will have to attend someone else’s victory party.
Beyond the Obama-Romney presidential showdown and U.S. Senator Scott Brown’s clash with Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, the statewide election ballot will be relatively barren this year.
In the state Senate, more than half of the seats - 26 out of 40 – are uncontested; in the House of Representatives, the figures is higher, with 93 of 151 members running unopposed. No senate seat in Western Massachusetts is contested.
Other races are also wide open: only 8 of 29 Register of Deeds posts are contested; and none of the 15 clerk of court candidates has competition.
To an extent, the lack of competition reflects the state’s tradition of one party, Democratic rule, in which inter-party rivalries are settled in primaries.
Several local candidates, including Hampden County clerk of courts-elect Laura S. Gentile, had no shortage of competition in the primary.
Gentile, an assistant clerk of courts for 16 years, won the $110,000-a-year post in a spirited, four-way competition; she collected 36 percent of the vote, compared to Springfield City Councilor Thomas M. Ashe’s 32 percent.
The lack of contested races reflects several factors nationwide, from satisfaction with incumbents to the rising cost of running for office and voter apathy or disillusionment with politics.
Even so, Pamela H. Wilmot, executive director for Common Cause Massachusetts, said other one-party dominated states have kept competition alive not just in primaries, but in regular elections as well.
Moreover, the number of competitive elections in Massachusetts has plummeted since 1990 – when almost 75 percent were contested. Since then, the number of contested elections has decreased to below 30 percent in 2000, rising slightly in 2002.
Even some politically vulnerable incumbents are encountering no obstacles for another term. Despite losing his leadership position last year in the fallout from the state Probation Department scandal, state Rep. Thomas M. Petrolatti, D-Ludlow, faced no challengers in the primary and is unopposed in November.
As Wilmot noted after the state primary, “lack of competition is definitely not a good thing for democracy.”