Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Ohio State Law Journal

Abstract

Our aim in this Article is to urge a bit of caution before concluding that the system worked just as it should have and that our elections continue to properly ensure accountability of the elected to the electors. Even uncompetitive districts are at some level subject to shifts in voter preference. A district that is designed to be a safe district for an incumbent with 80% of the population of the incumbent's party could be won by the opposing party were that party to receive 100% of the votes. Indeed, so long as there are elections, the voters can always override the designed outcomes. The question is the degree of difficulty faced by the party out-of-power in translating shifts in voter sympathies into actual changes in electoral fortunes. The issue for us is not whether at some extraordinary level of voter dissatisfaction incumbents can be displaced, but what are the obstacles that the party out-of-power must overcome, and how do those compare to the past. Our focus is on the House elections and how the hurdles faced by the out-of-power Democrats in 2006 compare to those faced by the party out-ofpower in the post-World War II era.

First Page

1121

Volume

68

Publication Date

2007

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