Perhaps it's two straight state budgets approved by the deadline. Perhaps it's disgust with the state of election politics these days. Perhaps it's complete satisfaction with the incumbents. Perhaps it's apathy.

But whatever the cause, voters lose when they have no choices in races for the state Legislature.

With the dust settling from the petition filing period for political party lines, it's looking like three of the five state Legislature seats that incorporate part of Cayuga County will go uncontested this fall.

State Assembly members Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, and Robert Oaks, R-Macedon, along with state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, are the only people who have filed petitions in their districts, according to the state Board of Elections.

In a year in which the Democratic Party in New York has tremendous momentum from its statewide office candidates, the fact that they couldn't come up with anyone to take a shot at these seats reflects poorly on the local party leadership.

We're less concerned, though, with the state of any particular party than we are with the impact uncontested races have on our area.

Competitive campaigns have a great knack for bringing important local issues to the forefront. Both candidates take great interest in reaching out to the voters to understand their priorities, and hopefully this translates into more effective public service once the elections are done.

That's not to say Kolb, Oaks and Nozzolio won't listen to their constituents. They have and they will, but the urgency to do so is certainly missing when there is no opponent.

We're not saying that these men deserve to be replaced, either. If they had opponents, we quite possibly would have endorsed all of the incumbents - that just depends on who is running against whom.

But to have elections without any opposition only weakens the state of representative democracy in Albany.