Think your state does politics better than the other 49? The Fix wants you to make your case!
We are going to rank the 10 most interesting states in politics, but even with The Fix’s expertise ( and we use that term guardedly) we don’t know everything about the political history of every state (not yet, at least).
That’s where you come in. We’re calling on all Fix readers to make the case that their state is one of the 10 most interesting.
A couple examples of how we would write up our home states:
* Minnesota (home of FixAaron) is the most interesting state because we consistently have the highest voter turnout rate in the country. What’s more, we’ve elected both a “Saturday Night Live” comedian and a professional wrestler to statewide offices — both in the last two decades! We also have the longest-running streak of voting for a Democrat for president (Mondale-mentum!), and our Democratic Party is still known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party.
* Connecticut (home of Fix Original Recipe) is clearly the best. Despite its small size, former senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) have been some of the most important members of Congress in recent years, both George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush have ties to the state where patriarch Prescott Bush served as senator, and we’ve had some of the best political campaigns in history, including Lieberman going independent after his primary loss in 2006.
* Washington State (home of Fix Sean) takes the cake. It is one of the few to utilize the all-party blanket primary system, under which the top two vote-getters advance from the primary to the general election regardless of party affiliation. When candidates file for elections, they can choose the party designation they want to accompany their name on the ballot — a quirk that allows for situations like 2008, when Dino Rossi described himself as ”prefers GOP party,” which led some Democrats to complain that he was attempting to cloak his Republican Party ties.
We’re leaving it up to you guys to decide exactly what makes a state interesting, be it political power, unusual elections, quirky claims to fame or great campaigns. (And of course, there’s nothing to stop you from making the case for a state you don’t call home.)
So have at it in the comments section below, and we’ll decide on the top 10 in the days to come!