435 congressmen, 100 senators, 50 governors, how many state and local officials?

Question

Everyone knows that statistics are a powerful persuasion technique. I am writing a paper that would benefit from a statistic of the total number of officials who run for office every two years. The closest I have come to a number is in this quote by former RNC chairman Mehlman: They will vote for 435 Congressmen … 33 Senators … 36 governors … and thousands of state and local offices. Does anyone know how many state and local offices exist in the United States? I will be VERY thankful if anyone can come up with this figure

I am wondering how many ELECTED state and local officials --sorry for not including that originally

Answer 1

Wow, that'll bee a hard number to figure. Remember to include the governors into the "state" offices number.

The number of elected officials in a state congress's House & Senate chambers depend on the population. Nebraska only has one-house legislature, but every other state is a basic mirror of the federal government.

While WikiPedia isn't always accurate, the numbers reflected in this graph appear to be correct. They also reflect the new, recently elected legislatures (I live in Oregon, and this shows our House as a Democratic majority; until the recent election, it was a Republican majority.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_legislatures_in_the_United_States#Legislature_name.2C_structure.2C_party_strengths.2C_office_term

Of course, you'd also have to include city councils, Mayors, City Managers, the county seats, District Attorneys, Directors of different bureaus, etc... This number WILL reach into the thousands.

Answer 2

California = 80 member Assembly, and 40 member Senate. That's the best I can offer - you should check Wikipedia.