I started thinking, is there anywhere in the country that doesn't have a competitive race within easy driving distance?
First of all, there are the states with competitive top-of-the-ticket statewide races. (S) means Senate, (G) is Governor, (H) is an at-large House seat.
Alaska (S), Arizona (G), California (S,G), Colorado (S,G), Connecticut (S,G), Delaware (S, H), Florida (S,G), Georgia (G), Hawaii (G), Illinois (S,G), Indiana (S), Iowa (S,G), Kentucky (S), Louisiana (S), Maine (G), Maryland (G), Massachusetts (G), Michigan (G), Minnesota (G), Missouri (S), Nevada (S), New Hampshire (S,G), New Mexico (G), New York (S), North Carolina (S), North Dakota (H), Ohio (G,S), Oregon (G), Pennsylvania (S,G), Rhode Island (G), South Carolina (G), South Dakota (H), Texas (G), Vermont (G), Washington (S), West Virginia (S), Wisconsin (S,G).
So right of the bat, that's 37 of the 50 states with key contested top-of-the-ticket contests. (That's not including key lower-ballot contests like Secretary of State or Attorney General, plenty of which are competitive all around the country).
Most of the remaining states feature key contested House races: Alabama (AL-02), Arkansas (AR-02, AR-04), Idaho (ID-01), Kansas (KS-03, KS-04), Mississippi (MS-01, MS-04), Nebraska (NE-0102), New Jersey (NJ-03), Tennessee (TN-04, TN-08), Utah (UT-02), and Virginia (VA-02, VA-05, VA-09).
That leaves just Montana, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. It's no coincidence that Oklahoma and Wyoming are the most conservative states, and in a Republican year, they were bound to solidify. If you are in southern Wyoming, they could probably use your help in Colorado. Oklahoma Dems ... my sympathies. Still, the Oklahoma Senate is 26 seats Republican, 22 seats Democrat. There's a contested state lege race somewhere near you, not to mention other statewide offices.
And Montana Dems have to be a busy bunch -- the state legislature is 51-49 GOP in the state House, and 26-24 Dem in the Senate. Is any other state more perfectly divided? So those guys have their hands full keeping control of the lege, while gearing up for a huge 2012 (open governor's seat and defending Jon Tester).
In other words, there's an important race somewhere near you. There's no excuse to sit this one out.