60 Year High: Independents Elected to State Legislature in 10 States

From Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:

Thanks very much to Morgan Daybell for helping me find instances at which independent legislators were elected or re-elected last week.  It appears that independents were elected to state legislators in 2010 in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Vermont.  We are still waiting to see if one was elected in Colorado.  Whether this list ultimately contains 9 states or 10 states, it appears more states elected independents to state legislatures this year than in any previous year in at least sixty years. Louisiana and Virginia also have independent state legislators, but those two states didn’t have legislative elections this year.

At Independent Political Report, Paulie has put together a handy link-list to reports on those newly elected Independents:

• Rhode Island Independent State Senator Re-Elected
• Kentucky Re-Elects Independent State Senator
• Tennessee Independent Legislator Re-Elected
• Rusty Kidd, Independent Georgia Legislator, Re-Elected
• Independent Elected to South Dakota House of Representatives
• Independent Elected to Wisconsin Legislature
• Alabama Elects First Independent to State Legislature Since 1983
• North Carolina Independent Candidate Elected to State Legislature
• Colorado Hasn’t Determined a Winner in Legislative Race Involving Independent Write-in Incumbent
• Green Party Activist Elected to Maine Legislature as an Independent Candidate