UPDATE 1-Republican election wave hits U.S. state houses

[Pryderi]

Source: Reuters

Nov 3 (Reuters) - The surge that gave Republicans control of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday also hit state legislatures, giving Republicans power to potentially cement their hold in Congress for the next decade.

In most states, legislatures will be redrawing electoral districts for the U.S. House -- an adjustment of boundaries every 10 years that tends to favor the party in charge of each state house.

The big Republican Party wins at the state level give it the edge in reinforcing its strength in the U.S. House.

Republicans took control of at least state 18 chambers from Democrats, according to Tim Storey, an elections analyst at the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0328435720101103

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Looks like the Democrats and the American people are fucked for another 10 years, maybe longer.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Unless the Obama DOJ fights back against gerrymandering.

[Roland99]

3. FL passed Amendments 5 and 6 to redraw districts along geographic boundaries

one modicum of hope.

[cyclezealot]

6. Will that be sufficient means to limit gerrymandering.

There are ways to still be creative and have contiguous boundaries..
It's not so much a matter of how the lines are drawn , but who draws them and what factors are allowed in their creation..
For a model of a state that puts limits on gerrymandering.. Look to Iowa.. Under Iowa law, should the commission import political data they can go to prison.. And the commission is made up of academics and not politicians.
As a result, Iowa seems to have a history of competitive elections.

[Roland99]

7. Remains to be seen. Esp. with a Repuke Gov and state legislature.

[kestrel91316]

4. I doubt they'll make it a priority. Gotta cave and compromise, you see.

[Demeter]

5. thanks! I Needed a Good Laugh!

:rofl:

Fight? What's a fight?

[DarthDem]

2. Not Really

I'm already tired of hearing this from didacts in way too many corners.

Yes, there were state legislative losses. But in order to truly control the redistricting process, you have to have the governorship and both houses of the legislature. Don't have all three? Then some sort of compromise is necessary - - like what currently exists in Minnesota, for example.

A few districts out there will get harder for Democrats to win, yes. A few will also get harder for Republicans to win. But redistrict is very, very messy, and rarely does either party really score huge victories in the process. Candidate recruitment is the key to retaking the House (not to mention better good-guy turnout in 2012, which is almost assured), and this idea that the Rethugs are going to be able to make some sort of permanent majority for themselves is just so silly, and a classic overreaction. Let the dust settle a bit.

[Scooter24]

9. I guess there's just no hope for Texas.

Democrats in this state took a major beating last night.

Republican's are now very close to having a super-majority in this state- 99 out of 150 seats in the House and 19 out of 31 seats in the Senate plus the Governorship.

If their caucus holds together and they are able to get just 3 Democrats to vote with them (1 in the House, 2 in the Senate) then they could write State Constitutional Amendments at will.

Not to mention they also won the Lt. Governor race, the Attorney General race, all 3 open seats on both the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, and 3 of the 4 open seats on the state Board of Education.

[DarthDem]

10. Well . . .

The hope for Texas comes from the growing Latino vote in the state. Eventually, it's going to have major, major, dire consequences for the Republican party in its present form. It's just going to take a while. The good news is that today's Texas is on a clock.

[David__77]

8. The gerrymander is already very anti-Democratic.

It really could not get much worse, and in fact it will get better in 2012.