While a Republican-led U.S. House will continue to battle and haggle over the next two years with a Democratic president and Democratic-led Senate, Michael Barone notes in his latest column that many states have moved toward a single governing party.
Starting next month, Americans in 25 states will have Republican governors and Republicans in control of both houses of the state legislatures. They aren’t all small states, either. They include about 53 percent of the nation’s population.
At the same time, Americans in 15 states will have Democratic governors and Democrats in control of both houses of the state legislatures. They include about 37 percent of the nation’s population.
That leaves only 10 percent in states in which neither party is in control.
The Republican edge is largely a result of the Republican trend in 2009 and 2010. Normally, you would expect the Democrats to recoup and shift the balance the next time they have a good off-year. Maybe they will in 2014.
But what’s striking now is the wide margins in legislatures for one party or the other in state after state — most of them, in fact.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Republicans will have more than 60 percent of the members of both legislative houses in 17 states (Nebraska has a single nonpartisan legislature). And in nine more states, they’ll have 60 percent of the members of one house plus a majority in the other and the governorship.
Democrats will have 60 percent plus of both houses in 11 states, and in two more they will have 60 percent in one house, a majority in the other plus the governorship.
This is true even in presidential target states. The Ohio Senate will be 23-10 Republican, the Florida House 74-46 Republican.
