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Lessons from a 2011 NY-09 Congressional Election and today's TN-07 Special. The eyes of much of the political class — in D.C., among the media, and nationwide — are focused on Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election today, and as is often the case, everyone will try to spin and interpret the results of an off year special election toward next year’s midterms.   My home in Tennessee is in the 5 th  District next door, but I am close enough to see all the ads, a

Of the 34 ballot measures in the pipeline in California for 2026, here’s the real players. It’s late November in an off year, and for followers of ballot measure politics in the premier direct democracy state – California – that can mean only one thing. All eyes turn to the Attorney General  and Secretary of State  ballot measure tracking pages to see how the landscape is shaping up next year’s elections.   The pipeline of measures working through the process reveals some of

Both conservative and progressive states have worked to undermine direct democracy when it has suited their purposes. It breeds cynicism with the electorate who jealously protect their power. For more than a century, direct democracy has served as a pressure valve in American politics — a way for citizens to act when elected officials refuse to. From California’s Progressive Era reforms to modern-day citizen petitions in Arizona, Maine, and Ohio, the ballot measure process ha

There's been a lot of great analysis of the lessons learned from the 2025 off-year elections. With a week to digest them, here's our practical takes. As always, our commentary is not for punditry purposes, but real lessons from that can be applied to future public affairs and political campaigns. Voters across the country weighed in last week, and the signal is clearer than the noise . Democrats performed strongly in an off-year following a Republican presidential win — no bi