Note that a big chunk are in relatively cheap media markets, and in New York, Florida and Virginia, you have fewer officeholders and they are in smaller districts.

In Virginia Harry Byrd also had a stint as a Democrat, and he’s the only statewide guy. In New York there hasn’t been an Independent governor or Senator (I went back a century). In Florida you had Charlie Crist, who left his party, and Lieberman in Connecticut who did the same.

My sense is that if you want to get in as an independent you need money and that comes from the parties a lot of the time. That means winning statewide office in New York is going to be really, really hard if not impossible.

Contrast this to Minnesota, which is one of the cheaper media markets in the country. (Just ask the Minnesota Twins 🙂 ). Retail politics is just easier to do there, as it is in Vermont and Connecticut.

This is why you’ll see more independents as local Congresspeople and (Note your map) in areas that have cheaper media markets.

By the way I was curious who you had from New York, as our current delegation is 18 Democrats and 9 Republicans. We’ve had some reps who were third-party people, though they often ended up as Republicans or Democrats eventually (we have a fusion system here).