Posted on 11/04/2010 10:18:35 AM PDT by Palmetto Patriot
While the Republican gains in the House and Senate are grabbing the most headlines, the most significant results on Tuesday came in state legislatures where Republicans wiped the floor with Democrats.
Republicans picked up 680 seats in state legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures -- the most in the modern era. To put that number in perspective: In the 1994 GOP wave, Republicans picked up 472 seats. The previous record was in the post-Watergate election of 1974, when Democrats picked up 628 seats.
The GOP gained majorities in at least 14 state house chambers. They now have unified control -- meaning both chambers -- of 26 state legislatures.
That control is a particularly bad sign for Democrats as they go into the redistricting process. If the GOP is effective in gerrymandering districts in many of these states, it could eventually lead to the GOP actually expanding its majority in 2012.
Republicans now hold the redistricting "trifecta" -- both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship -- in 15 states. They also control the Nebraska governorship and the unicameral legislature, taking the number up to 16. And in North Carolina -- probably the state most gerrymandered to benefit Democrats -- Republicans hold both chambers of the state legislature and the Democratic governor does not have veto power over redistricting proposals.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com ...
I agree with you. It has taken much of the enjoyment out of the incredible landslide election. Frankly, we MUST develop a real plan for retaking the following states:
California
Oregon
Washington
Nevada
I speculate that voter fraud contributes up to 15-20% of all votes in these three states ...and it goes on election after election after election.
The local races may be the place where Tea Party groups are most effective. I know that a concentration on local politics is trumpeted by many in that movement. As pointed out above this has some pretty significant implied consequences and in the long run may be considerably more important than taking control of one house of the Federal legislature.
Bookmark, nice post.
Beauty.
RE: Devastation: GOP Picks Up 680 State Leg. Seats
Tell that to New York. We’re still stuck with the same old people in Albany.
The huge national Tsunami encountered a HUGE DAM when it hit New York State.
[Frankly, we MUST develop a real plan for retaking the following states:]
I am working on it. I wrote the book on Harry Reid corruption, now I get six years to beat him like a pinata. Click my name to see more.
Am proud of my fellow Pennsylvanians, with the perennial exception of the mindless robots/dead from Filthadelphia.
Currently, there are 7382 state legislators in the United States.
What matters more are how many *chambers* are dominated by Republicans. There are a total of 99 chambers, with two per State except for Nebraska, which only has one.
This means that if you take as an average that the two chambers in a State are evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, just a few seats can change which party controls a chamber. A change of 680 seats nationwide is therefore huge.
Thinking again in terms of averages, this works out to 3 or 4 seats in every chamber in the United States.
400 holy smokes, I thought our legislature was too big.
In MN we picked up one Congressional Seat - tossed out Oberstar a 36 year Democrat rep. Took over both state houses, first time ever for the state senate. And before the election the senate had a super majority for the Dems.
Oberstar can now spend more time with his family.
Maybe he and 28 yr Dem rep. John Spratt can share Slurpees on the porch.
A bloodbath.
An absolute bloodbath for the Dems.
bttt
Yes - but the redistricting hasn't taken place yet. It is ordinarily done every 10 years based on Census data. We should know if it looks any better in a year or so after the new panel uses 2010 Census info to draw new lines.
I don’t care what 2 guys up the road are doing unless they’re doing it in the schools and using tax dollars to do it and then demand affirmation from the rest of us.
That is when people have a problem with it.
We like to think we’re special here! “;^)
BTW, I’ll be collecting my $100/year salary as one of the 400 beginning in January.
Yup. With the passage of Proposition 20, voters corrected an oversight and gave the commission the power to also draw congressional as well as state lines. The Democratic Party leaders are shut out of a process they usually had all to themselves.
Excerpt from Tom McC email:
“Sadly, in California, Republican leaders tried to campaign to the left of the Democrats and the result was disastrous. While the rest of the country was celebrating historic Republican gains (including a net gain of at least 61 U.S. House Seats, 6 U.S. Senate Seats, 680 state legislative seats, 19 state legislatures and seven governors), the statewide Republican ticket in California imploded and Republicans actually lost a legislative seat in the Assembly. Republicans nationally now hold more state legislative seats than in any year since 1928, except in California were they hold fewer than at any time since 1978!”
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