Incumbents

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission voted Thursday to hike campaign contribution limits for candidates in the upcoming municipal election, despite warnings that the panel is tipping the scales in favor of well-connected incumbents. On a 3-1 vote, the commission allowed candidates for City Council to accept $700 per donor per election cycle, up from the current $500 limit. Candidates for citywide offices — mayor, city attorney and city controller — will see the maximum increased from $1,000 to $1,300.

After more than 35 years in the Senate, Richard G. Lugarof Indiana was ousted Tuesday by a tea party challenger in a Republican primary that showed how hard it is for a veteran lawmaker known for his ability to compromise to win reelection in the current political environment. The 80-year-old senator, a leading voice for his party on foreign policy, was pummeled for weeks by Republican rival Richard Mourdock for his breaches with conservative orthodoxy. Among them: Lugar's support of citizenship for some illegal immigrants and his votes to confirm President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

You ask why incumbents are out this season? We don't have problems, we have elections. C. MULROONEY, Los Angeles

Political upheaval in Europe reached a new apex over the weekend when French voters threw out their incumbent president and Greeks gave the heave-ho to the ruling parliamentary coalition. The results suggest that a new consensus is emerging in Europe in favor of more economic stimulus, but they also call into question the continent's ability to agree on a plan to keep its fiscal problems from spreading uncontrollably. European leaders had agreed to a series of pacts that would rescue Greece and other defaulting countries in exchange for steep reductions in their red ink, while also requiring every country that relies on the euro to shrink their debts and curb deficit spending.

It's an instant truism that Tuesday's elections were bad news for incumbents, both those running and others who tremble at the prospect of another uprising in November. But in fact, Tuesday's outcomes turned to a great extent on issues and personalities peculiar to individual races. Take the defeat of the veteran Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. An 80-year-old in his fifth term, Specter is the consummate insider. In his victory speech, Specter's upstart primary opponent, Rep. Joe Sestak, declared: "This is what democracy looks like: a win for the people over the establishment, over the status quo, even over Washington, D.C."

George Hatch's article on redistricting (South Bay, Aug. 17) appears to violate journalistic standards. Since the statement "none (of the incumbent congressmen) is expected to experience serious opposition" lacks attribution, we must conclude that this is the reporter's viewpoint. If so, doesn't this article belong on the editorial page? No matter how innocuous it may seem, injected bias like this only offers one more advantage to incumbents. Considering that Rep. (Dana) Rohrabacher (R-Lomita)

Re "Close House Races Go the Way of Rotary Phones, Newt Gingrich" (April 15), on the entrenched incumbency of House members: Ronald Brownstein overlooks one crucial factor, namely, the desire by many people to live in a district that has a representative whose views mirror their own. Since moving here in 1981, I've been represented by Henry Waxman, Howard Berman, Tony Beilenson, Brad Sherman and now Berman again--all Democrats and all fairly liberal....

It may be hard for most media consumers to believe, but there is some good news for incumbents running in this year’s midterm elections. According to a Gallup poll released Friday, slightly more than half of all registered voters said their congressional representative deserves to be reelected. To be sure, that good news comes with some big caveats. The 51% who back their local congressperson is the lowest midterm figure in the past 16 years.

After an extraordinary night of upsets across suburban Los Angeles County, once-unbeatable city council members were sorting through the remnants of their political careers Wednesday, while victorious "outsiders" planned dramatic changes for local government. Newcomers were elected to the city councils in 49 of the 56 cities with council elections, most at the expense of incumbents. Three cities saw all three of their incumbents ousted for the first time ever.

In the afternoon, Mitt Romney delivered pizzas to a Manhattan fire station. This evening, President Obama will deliver a nationally televised address from a war zone. Talk about the advantages of incumbency. The president's arrival in Afghanistan on Tuesday for a surprise visit to sign a strategic partnership agreement with his Afghan counterpart capped five days in which his reelection team and the administration seemed eager to highlight his role as commander-in-chief. It began Thursday with a tough campaign speech by Vice President Joe Biden in New York, in which he questioned whether Romney would have made the same call Obama did to order the special forces raid in Pakistan targeting Osama bin Laden.

Trial judges are, on the books, elected officials, and even the vast majority of those whose names never appear on a ballot are subject to election challenge every six years. Should voters not call them to account for their performance, as they do with any other politician, on election day? Should they not encourage opponents to challenge incumbent judges? Or are judges different from members of Congress or city councils? Judges are most definitely different. The last thing we want or need in California is trial judges who sit on the bench with one eye on justice and the other on how any particular ruling is going to play with the public.

The city of Vernon on Wednesday was roiled by allegations of widespread voter fraud, including claims that outsiders were brought in to vote in an attempt to influence the city's first competitive election in years. The Chamber of Commerce alleges that nearly 30% of the registered voters didn't live in Vernon. In response to the group's complaints, city officials threw out six ballots Tuesday, tilting the election for a City Council seat to challenger Michael Ybarra, who won by five votes.

LAGOS, Nigeria - Incumbent Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade's move to swiftly concede defeat after Sunday's presidential runoff election is being viewed as a major positive step for democracy in a region better known for military coups and violence-tinged election campaigns. Wade, 85, who faced a massive public backlash after defying a constitutional provision limiting presidential terms to two, was defeated by a former ally, Macky Sall, 50. Wade, who had been in power for 12 years, was seeking a third term despite his age and the fact that he developed the two-term limit.

Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus won the Republican nomination for the seat he has represented in Congress for 20 years, beating back three primary challengers and an anti-incumbent "super PAC. " The primary victory almost certainly assures him another term. But the narrowness with which he won - Bachus had 59% of the vote with 87% of precincts reporting, compared with the 76% he claimed in the 2010 primary - suggests that the campaign against him, coupled with allegations that he engaged in insider trading, has bruised his standing with voters.

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission voted Thursday to hike campaign contribution limits for candidates in the upcoming municipal election, despite warnings that the panel is tipping the scales in favor of well-connected incumbents. On a 3-1 vote, the commission allowed candidates for City Council to accept $700 per donor per election cycle, up from the current $500 limit. Candidates for citywide offices — mayor, city attorney and city controller — will see the maximum increased from $1,000 to $1,300.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) suggested that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer should be impeached for her role in ousting the independent official at the helm of the state's redistricting commission. "I think the people of Arizona should consider impeaching Jan Brewer for what she did," Israel told reporters on Friday at a meeting to discuss the 2012 landscape for House candidates. Brewer and Republicans in the state Senate created a stir this week when they voted to remove Colleen Coyle Mathis from her post as head of the commission.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf faced a tough challenge to retain power as voters went to the polls Tuesday, with many observers predicting she would be forced into a runoff election against her strongest opponent. Johnson-Sirleaf, who last week was one of three women awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, probably will remain pitted against candidate Winston Tubman, a former United Nations official, after Tuesday's votes are counted, analysts said. Results are expected this month, with a runoff to follow if necessary.