[EM] incumbents

[James Gilmour]

Forest W Simmons Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 12:56 AM
> A writer in the most recent Zmagazine says that 85% of congressional 
> elections are won by the incumbent, and goes on to say that most of the 
> other 15% are cases in which the incumbent has died or retired.
> 
> With this in mind, why not pit the incumbent head to head 
> against each challenger?

Why not tackle the real problem?  Get rid of the single-member districts.  As gerrymandering is
legal and controlled by the incumbents, there is no way you'll ever solve the incumbent problem, or
get a properly representative Congress, until you elect your Representatives from multi-member
districts.  I would also recommend using a voter-centred system of PR, not a party-centred system.
James