Open seats in the 2011 state legislative elections

2011 Competitiveness Overview
Primary competition (state comparison)
Incumbents with no challenges at all in 2011 Incumbents defeated • Victorious challengers • Primary competitiveness
Major party challengers (state comparison)
List of candidates with no competition
Open seats (state comparisons)
Impact of term limits on # of open seats Long-serving senators • Long-serving reps
Chart Comparing 2011 Results
Chart Comparing 2011 Results • Comparisons Between Years
Competitiveness Index • Absolute Index
2011 State Legislative Elections
Competitiveness Studies from Other Years
2007 • 2009 • 2010 • 2012

There are 578 seats in 4 states with a general election in 2011. We took a look at each of the states to see how many state legislative incumbents chose to run for re-election in 2011.

Our main findings:

• In 105 (18.2%) of the 578 seats up for election in 2011, the incumbent did not run for re-election, either because he or she voluntarily chose not to run again, or because of term limits.
• In 473 (81.8%) of the 578 seats up for election in 2011, the incumbent ran for re-election.
• Adjusting for the 13 term-limited legislators from Louisiana, 92 legislators chose not to run for re-election to their current position in 2011. Therefore, 83.7% of state legislative incumbents who were legally able to run again in 2011 chose to run again.

The ranking of the four states based on percentage of open seats is as follows:

1. Louisiana
2. New Jersey
3. Mississippi
4. Virginia

Because only four states are holding elections in 2011, the sample size is small when conducting analysis. It is therefore helpful to compare the states holding elections in 2011 to the 46 states that held elections in 2010. Here is how the four states would have ranked in 2010, based on the percentage of open seats.

• Louisiana: 11th
• Mississippi: 21st
• New Jersey: 17th
• Virginia: 22nd

States compared by open seats

State	Senate at stake	Open senate	House at stake	Open house	Total open	% open	Open seats rank	Overall competitive rank
Louisiana	39	9	105	28	37	26.0%	1	1
Mississippi	52	9	122	18	27	15.5%	3	3
New Jersey	40	4	80	18	22	18.3%	2	2
Virginia	40	5	100	14	19	13.6%	4	4

Comparison to 2007

See also: Open seats in the 2007 state legislative elections

Ballotpedia staff went back to the 2007 data to compare with this year's election. Louisiana was omitted from the 2007 study because of the blanket primary system. Accounting for the three other states that held elections in 2007 and are again in 2011, the number of open seats can be compared.

• In Mississippi, there were 18 open seats in 2007 and 27 open seats in 2011.
• In New Jersey, there were 34 open seats in 2007 and 22 open seats in 2011.
• In Virginia, there were 10 open seats in 2007 and 19 open seats in 2011.

Thus, there are 8 more open seats in 2011 in the three states that can be compared.

See also

• State legislative elections, 2011
• Impact of term limits on state legislative elections in 2011
• 2011 state legislative elections analyzed using a Competitiveness Index
• Incumbents with no primary challenger in the 2011 state legislative elections
• Major party candidates with major party competition in the November 2011 state legislative elections