[Clemenza]

The 1984 election was a Black Swan. Even Bill Lipinski’s district (SW Chicago and bordering industrial suburbs) went for Reagan that year. Same holds for 1972, when Nixon won Crook County. Landslide years should NEVER be taken as an indicator of political trends.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Lipinski’s post-1982 district was never hyper-Dem as some other Chicago districts were. His district went for Reagan in ‘84 AND Bush, Sr. in ‘88 (Rosty’s district came within 5,000 votes of going for Reagan in ‘84, and as we all know, even dumped Rosty for the Republican Flanagan a decade later in a district generally acknowledged to be nearly 2/3rds rodent).

In a lot of ways, it’s too bad we never had a system where voting for the President also meant voting for representation of the President’s party (at least in the House). Can you have imagined what the 1973-75 and 1985-87 Congresses would’ve looked like under such a system ?

I looked it up, and the House delegations would’ve looked like this:

AL (1972: 7 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 7 GOP-0 Dem)
AK (1972: 1 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 1 GOP-0 Dem)
AZ (1972: 4 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 5 GOP-0 Dem)
AR (1972: 4 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 4 GOP-0 Dem)
CA (1972: 35 GOP-8 Dem; 1984: 37 GOP-8 Dem)
CO (1972: 5 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 5 GOP-1 Dem)
CT (1972: 6 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 6 GOP-0 Dem)
DE (1972: 1 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 1 GOP-0 Dem)
FL (1972: 15 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 18 GOP-1 Dem)
GA (1972: 10 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 9 GOP-1 Dem)
HI (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 2 GOP-0 Dem)
ID (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 2 GOP-0 Dem)
IL (1972: 18 GOP-6 Dem; 1984: 16 GOP-5 Dem)
IN (1972: 11 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 8 GOP-2 Dem)
IA (1972: 6 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 5 GOP-1 Dem)
KS (1972: 5 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 5 GOP-0 Dem)
KY (1972: 7 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 6 GOP-1 Dem)
LA (1972: 8 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 7 GOP-1 Dem)
ME (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 2 GOP-0 Dem)
MD (1972: 7 GOP-1 Dem; 1984: 5 GOP-3 Dem)
MA (1972: 1 GOP-11 Dem*; 1984: 8 GOP-3 Dem)
MI (1972: 17 GOP-2 Dem; 1984: 16 GOP-2 Dem)
MN (1972: 5 GOP-3 Dem; 1984: 5 GOP-3 Dem)
MS (1972: 5 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 5 GOP-0 Dem)
MO (1972: 9 GOP-1 Dem; 1984: 7 GOP-2 Dem)
MT (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 2 GOP-0 Dem)
NE (1972: 3 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 3 GOP-0 Dem)
NV (1972: 1 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 2 GOP-0 Dem)
NH (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 1984: 2 GOP-0 Dem)
NJ (1972: 14 GOP-1 Dem; 1984: 13 GOP-1 Dem)
NM (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 3 GOP-0 Dem)
NY (1972: 27 GOP-12 Dem; 22 GOP-12 Dem)
NC (1972: 11 GOP-0 Dem; 11 GOP-0 Dem)
ND (1972: 1 GOP-0 Dem; 1 GOP-0 Dem)
OH (1972: 20 GOP-3 Dem; 18 GOP-3 Dem)
OK (1972: 6 GOP-0 Dem; 6 GOP-0 Dem)
OR (1972: 3 GOP-1 Dem; 4 GOP-1 Dem)
PA (1972: 21 GOP-4 Dem; 17 GOP-6 Dem)
RI (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 2 GOP-0 Dem)
SC (1972: 6 GOP-0 Dem; 6 GOP-0 Dem)
SD (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 1 GOP-0 Dem)
TN (1972: 8 GOP-0 Dem; 8 GOP-1 Dem)
TX (1972: 22 GOP-2 Dem; 24 GOP-3 Dem)
UT (1972: 2 GOP-0 Dem; 3 GOP-0 Dem)
VT (1972: 1 GOP-0 Dem; 1 GOP-0 Dem)
VA (1972: 10 GOP-0 Dem; 10 GOP-0 Dem)
WA (1972: 7 GOP-0 Dem; 7 GOP-1 Dem)
WV (1972: 4 GOP-0 Dem; 3 GOP-1 Dem)
WI (1972: 6 GOP-3 Dem; 6 GOP-3 Dem)
WY (1972: 1 GOP-0 Dem; 1 GOP-0 Dem)

Overall (1972: 377 GOP-58 Dem)
(1984: 369 GOP-66 Dem)

(*Note MA was the odd one in 1972, the 3 districts that elected GOP members all went for McGovern, only the Cape & Islands district of newly-elected Gerry Studds went for Nixon)