DFO: Not Enough Dem Candidates

At OpenCDA.com, Dan Gookin wrote a post over the weekend, titled: “Where Are the D’s?” In the post, he laments the lack of Democrats running in legislative races (4 for 15 positions) in North Idaho and Kootenai County races (2 for 6 positions) . I agree with Gookin when he says: “One party rule creates a vacuum of ideas.” The dearth of Democratic candidates means that most elections will be settled in the GOP primaries this spring, including the races to fill two Kootenai County commissioner seats. That means local Dems won’t have the chance to decide who fills those seats unless they cross over to vote for the Republican candidate most palatable for them. I understand why local Dems can’t field candidates for office in Districts 3 (northern Kootenai County) and 5 (Post Falls area). A Dem candidate would have to raise tens of thousands of dollars and run a picture perfect race for a chance to lose by only 10 percentage points or so to a Republican in those two, bright-red districts. The same probably holds for the commissioner seats. The Dems were able to find candidates for the two House seats in District 4 (Coeur d’Alene). But it’s still disappointing that most Repub incumbents who win their party nomination, sometimes unopposed, don’t have to answer for their record during their last term of office/ DFO .

Question: Should Dems field candidates for every office, despite the long odds of winning in North Idaho and Kootenai County?