To explain a bit, if you're familiar with Baker v. Carr, the Supreme Court decision that was based on a lawsuit that originated here in TN (surprise, surprise). The allegation was that there was a gross discrepency in representation (specifically, the House) which hadn't reapportioned itself in something like 40-50 years after the 1960 census. As a result, the most populous county had 8 members (Shelby, with 627,000 people) all elected at large and the least populous (Moore, where they make Jack Daniels, with 3,500 people) had 1 member, shared with no other county. Do the math and you'll soon realize that Shelby received one member per about 78,375 people, and Moore with the paltry 3,500. Moore County voters then had 22 TIMES the power of one voter in Shelby. The state (then heavily 'Rat outside of East TN and some scattered Western counties) argued it was perfectly within their rights to keep it like that and the court disagreed and ordered the one-man, one-vote implemented in its 1962 decision. Within 3 elections, the House went from an 80-19 'Rat to GOP majority in 1961 (and all White), to having African-American members and a dramatic increase in Republicans (the former not necessarily at odds with the latter before the radicalization occurred) until there was a 49-49 split in January 1969 (with 1 Independent). The Independent, an old coot from the sticks, refused to have any part in the matter in the selection of a Speaker and went to have a nap (no joke). That left a hopeless deadlock, and neither side would dream of having a co-speaker. The young 32-year old GOP leader from East TN went over and had a talk with Knoxville's lone African-American Democrat member (himself a 2nd term member) named Robert J. Booker. He persuaded Booker to break the deadlock, and Booker voted for the GOP Speaker. The Speaker's name was Bill Jenkins, a Detroit, MI native by birth but raised in TN. Jenkins would serve just that term as Speaker before jumping into the Governor's race in 1970 (he lost the GOP primary to Winfield Dunn, who went on to be the 1st GOP Governor since 1920). 26 years later upon the retirement of the venerable Jimmy Quillen, he was elected to Congress (not quite that youngster anymore, turning 67 this year). Ironically, just as we won the Governorship, we narrowly lost holding the House. The 'Rats took control and drew the lines going into '72. Despite the gerrymandering, we were still down just by a few seats, but after Watergate in '74, we dropped back down into the 30s (roughly 1/3rd) and stood there for quite awhile. We have, ever since, always made small gains after getting gerrymandered down to 1/3rd, but just as we'd be within 7 seats, we'd always do it right before a reapportionment and get smacked down again. It happened like clockwork every time for the next 3 decades. The 'Rats stopped getting a majority of the vote in the last few election cycles, with their candidates winning by unimpressive numbers in the usual 60 seats+ they would hold and ours by huge numbers in the 35+ we would hold. They were about to do it to us again (after we received about 50% of the vote in '00) and wipe out nearly 10 seats of ours (back down to 1/3rd) with the endorsement of Scumquist, most of which those members opposed his illegal income tax. They raised holy hell at that prospect and wiser 'Rat heads realized that they would be able to accomplish nothing with that and that it was better to keep the gerrymandered ('90s style) status quo. For the first time since Baker v. Carr, we gained about 2 seats, but that was far less than we expected after last year's debacle. The ratio stands at 55-44 (with the 'Rats now having slid to 45% of the vote), but shift a few thousand votes (or much, much less in some cases, fewer than 100 in an adjacent seat to mine) and that can go to a 51-48 GOP majority. We also had an embarrassment of 2 RINOs holding GOP seats (one of whom was indicted and the other was a pervert who blew his brains out) go to the 'Rats, further preventing our rightful majority. Even most liberal pundits admit that it may be near impossible to prevent a GOP win before the end of the decade given our usual gains. So we'll get it in spite of ourselves (and lack of vision on the part of our leaders).
As for the Senate, which wasn't effected nearly as much, remained heavily 'Rat even after Baker, has been roughly just a few seats down for most of the past decade or so. Even when we briefly had it, the old fart RINO leaders there who've been there for decades did nothing to exercise their newfound majority control in '95, and the 'Rats quickly took it back in 2 races we lost by only a few hundred votes. The Senate is regarded as a club, and it isn't as if we have no say there. The Lieutenant-Governor, the longest-serving one in U.S. history, a Conservative 'Rat from West TN named John Wilder, has served in that position since 1971. He rules with a bipartisan coalition and dispenses Chairmanships to those with the most seniority, regardless of party (but still makes for a lot of inactivity, since those GOPers that have Chairs do nothing with them). Wilder never campaigns against a single member, regardless of party, and will always endorse an incumbent. I can say he's given us a fair shake, preventing more extremist members on the 'Rat side who equally chafe under him, from going with their radical agenda and overthrowing him (though they did try once), but we really do need new leadership in both bodies badly.
"Here in IL we had both houses after the 72 election (I don't really know what the balance was prior to that) and the dems had both after 74 and kept them till we won the house in 1980(SPEAKER WAS GEORGE RYAN)."
Yup, I know a bit about the legislature there. I think it was usually GOP pre-1972 more often than not. Remember, too, you had that wacky proportional representation when you had that huge amount of members that was reduced after 1982, and that often made for a lot of hijinks.
"The rats won the 1982 NAME DRAWING FROM A FREAKING HAT GOD IS THAT DUMB, and kept both houses for 10 years. We almost took control back in 86 cause of the LaRouche dem that got the nomination for Guv but Adlai Stevenson ran as an Indie and prevented the negative coataills."
Yup, I remember reading about that. Funny, I was talking about LaRouche on another thread a little while ago.
"We won the 1992 DRAWING OF A NAME, this time from a bowl. We drew the map and won the senate but not the house till 94 (lost it in 1996) and we lost the senate last year cause you guessed it THE RATS WON THE STUPID NAME DRAWING."
Yup, utterly idiotic.
"I should tell you about that, if no redisticting map is agreed on by a certain date there is a commission appointed by the Speaker of the House, Prez of the Senate and minority leaders of both. It is of course tied. When they also fail to agree the names of various repubs and rats are stuck in a hat or bowl and the Sec of State draws a name and that guy is the tie breaker on the commission."
Right.
Re: GA "Do you think they'll succeed in taking back the state senate? I hope not. We ought to have all the southern legislatures except Arkansas probably."
I'm not sure. Some of those party-switchers and at least one other Senator are clearly in gerrymandered 'Rat districts, and that puts them at jeopardy. They're probably at a greater disadvantage than we were going into '96, but at least they have a GOP majority that WANTS to be in the majority. We might drop a seat or two, and we might very well gain. My guess, either status quo or a razor-thin majority. As to other Southern legislatures, yes, we should have a majority in practically all of them (my state should clearly have become a solid GOP legislature after their initial '68 win, the first in any Southern state since Reconstruction, BTW). AR is a work in progress. The Houses in states like AL, KY, LA, & MS, will be tough, and may take at least 10-15 years before we can reach parity, if at all. If you had told me that MS (which will probably have a GOP Senate this year) would have surpassed TN at a regular election (not through switching in the middle of a session), before we could get our majority back, I'd have thought you were crazy. 5 states surrounding us will have GOP Senates (MO, KY, VA, GA & MS), and that is just remarkable given our situation as recently as 1980 when we had literally low double or single digit members.
"I wish I had a book that showed historic party control of all state legislatures for the past 50 years or so. That would be cool."
I don't have a specific reference book, but I've got numerous encyclopedias, etc., after 1950 in my house that if I need to find a breakdown for party control in a given state and year, I probably can. Just ask if you need a state and year, and I'll see if I can get the info.
"I did find a website with the results of all senate races since the popular election of senators began."
Yeah, I've got that on my favorites and occasionally refer to it. There are two other websites you may find of interest, The latter of which has general election figures going back to 1920 for Congress.
http://www.politicalgraveyard.com/
http://clerk.house.gov/members/election_information/index.php