Of the 170 legislative seats that will be decided in November, we know which party will hold 77 of them. See the lists for the House and Senate candidates here.  Because these seats are held by unopposed incumbents or only have one party?s candidates, we know now which party will hold them and we?ll know after the May primary who will be the newly elected member of the 2009 General Assembly.

Of the 50 Senate seats, we know Democrats will definitely hold 9 since no Republicans filed for them;  Republicans, having no Democrat opposition, will definitely hold 11. 

Of the 120 House seats, 33 will be in democrats? hands since no Republicans filed and 24 of those are guaranteed a Republican member since no Democrat filed to run.

Incumbents generally have an advantage in legislative races so vacated seats tend to draw candidates from both parties and a lot of attention. We see this again in this years? filings.  
Six Senate seats have been vacated; four currently held by Democrats (Kerr, Cowell, Hagan and Dalton) and two by Republicans (Smith and Pittenger).  All retiring senators except John Kerr are running for higher office.

There are nine House seats being vacated.  All but one (Pete Cunningham who retired in December) are Republicans.  Louis Pate, Bill Daughtridge and Debbie Clary are running for higher office while Tracy Walker, George Holmes, Joe Kiser, Trudi Walend and Charles Thomas are retiring.

So with filing closed as of noon last Friday, we now have the list of candidates for the 2009 General Assembly.  They?re off and running!  Or at least 93 of them are.