Posted on 11/06/2002 6:16:50 PM PST by listenhillary
GOP takes Mo. House, Senate by clear margin
Republicans have not taken the control of the House in almost half a century. By ROBERT SANDLER November 6, 2002
JEFFERSON CITY — Republicans won enough state races Tuesday to take control of the Missouri House of Representatives – for the first time since 1954.
The final details of some elections were unknown at press time. The secretary of state's office was reporting that the St. Louis election computer systems had crashed, and workers were in the process of faxing information to Jefferson City.
But the results of many races are still clearly in hand with Republicans making huge gains. House Minority Leader Catherine Hanaway is expected to become speaker when the legislative session convenes in January, making her the highest-ranking woman in the history of the state legislature.
The GOP's success exceeded some people's expectations, as they won more than a dozen House seats and at least two Senate seats that had been held by Democrats.
However, Democrats kept control of the three House seats that include Columbia, with incumbents Chuck Graham and Vicky Riback Wilson winning in the 24th and 25th
districts, respectively, and newcomer Jeff Harris picking up the seat that Tim Harlan had to vacate because of term limits.
Republicans and Democrats split the other two local House districts that include parts of Boone County. Democratic incumbent Wes Shoemyer kept his seat in the Ninth House District, and Republican Steve Hobbs of Mexico, Mo., captured the 21st District seat that was held by Democrat Ted Farnen, who could not run again because of term limits.
At press time, the new makeup of the state House appears to be 91 to 68 for the Republicans with four seats not reporting results. The Senate appears to have a 19 to 13 Republican majority. Two Senate seats were too close to call at press time.
Throughout the campaign, both sides admitted the Democrats had at least two things working against them from the start: term limits and redistricting.
This year marked the first time Missouri felt the major effects of term limits, as 71 House incumbents and 12 senators were ineligible to run for re-election.
A majority of those veterans were Democrats, including many who had risen to leadership positions, including the House speaker and majority leader.
Some Republicans had complained that redistricting had been unfairly generous to Democrats, but it appears not to have helped.
In state Senate elections, Republicans seemed to have solidified what had been a weak majority. Nearly every close election was won by the GOP except for races in Springfield and suburban St. Louis that were too close to call at press time.
Secretary of State Matt Blunt said voter turnout in many areas was unusually high.
"We're very confident that we will exceed our 45 percent expectation for voter turnout," he said late Tuesday evening. "Some counties are reporting higher turnout than the presidential election, which is quite remarkable. It would be historic in a nonpresidential year to approach that amount."
This year? A little different. Me thinks having FBI agents "monitoring" election, and letting the Dems know in advance had a "calming" effect on these crooks.
I look forward to studying new map when it is released, and superimposing it over previous election maps. Something tells me it will be quite similar...
I must review the MO Constitution to determine if Republicans now have a sufficient number to override Gov. Holden's threatened veto of any CCW legislation. NRA has promised us they will "revisit" the issue if they think it can be done. They spent $3.2 million in 1999, but we lost by 2%.
Perhaps there are enough pro-gun Dems in Jeff City to asist Republicans in this endeavor, if in fact they try it.
2% can be overcome with some more FBI poll watching! Also, with the sniper thing happening this fall, we could have passed it this time around had it been on the ballot.
Mr.M
Well, it's a very good start. But about that "One Term Bob" problem you have......:o) fsf
NOO. No no no no. Just no.
Forget it. Get it out of your head right now. I don't care about KC, but those people in Illinois...there's a reason a lot of us live on this side of the river.
Some of my STL friends refer to them as FIFI's (F Idiots From Illinois)
No offense intended to Illinios Freepers, as I'm sure they are not idiots.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.