Rising number of states seeing one-party rule

11.11.12

Divided government still rules in the nation’s capital after last week’s Tuesday’s vote, but unity is increasingly the name of the game in cities such as Annapolis, Topeka, Concord and Little Rock.

In a little-noticed footnote to last week’s election, state legislature elections this year have produced the highest number of states with one-party rule in 60 years. Democrats or Republicans now have sole control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in 37 state capitals around the country.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which tracks party representation in the country’s 50 state governments, Democrats now control all three bases of power – the governorship and both houses of the state legislature – in 14 states and Republicans in 23, with only 12 states sharing power. (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is considered nonpartisan.)

Regional power bases are also emerging, with Democrats increasingly dominating state governments across New England.

Conversely, after last week’s vote, the GOP for the first time since 1872 now controls the Arkansas House and Senate. Just 20 years ago, Republicans didn’t have a majority in a single legislative house in the states of the old Confederacy – now they control all 11.

The number of states with divided government is down from 31 just 16 years ago to 12 today, prompting speculation on the country’s evolving partisan geography.

“I think it is a reflection of a growing ‘sorting-out’ of our population – where people live – and our politics,” said Karl Kurtz, a political scientist at the NCSL. “They tend to go all the same way for governor, for legislator and – for that matter – for president.”

Bill Bishop, author of the book “The Big Sort” on the growing polarization of American politics, said, “There are mores states that have tipped either increasingly Republican or Democratic over time. Even in close elections you have a majority of voters who live in counties where the election wasn’t close at all. The world they see at their doorstep is different than the rest of the country.”

With state legislatures often seen as by the parties as the “farm team” for recruiting national candidates, both Republican and Democratic party officials were trying to spin the results of last week’s voting in their favor. Two years ago, Republicans scored stunning state-level gains in the 2010 wave election that also brought them control of the U.S. House of Representatives, but this year the results were far more mixed.


Democrats reclaimed majorities they had lost in 2010 in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the Minnesota House and Senate. They also took control of the Colorado House, the Oregon House, the Maine House and Senate and the New York Senate, for a total of eight pick-ups.

In addition to the Arkansas sweep, Republicans could point to only one other pick-up, but it was a satisfying one: the Wisconsin state Senate, where Democrats enjoyed a brief majority as a result of a number of recall elections this summer. GOP officials said the final tally was not as bad as it could have been, considering the defeat of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and the party’s weak showing in U.S. Senate races.

“Clearly, [Election Day] was not what Republicans were hoping for, but we remain encouraged by the successes seen at the state level across the country,” Republican State Leadership Committee President Chris Jankowski said in a statement as the final returns were rolling in.

“One thing remains clear – Republicans are the dominant party in the states holding a majority of state legislatures, governorships, lieutenant governorships, secretaries of state and half of the nation’s attorneys general.”

In one bright note for Republicans, the party added one net governorship its total, with 30 GOP governors nationwide to 20 Democrats.

But Michael Sargeant, Mr. Jankowski’s counterpart at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, noted that in addition to flipping eight state legislative bodies, Democrats gained seats in 40 chambers overall and obtained veto-proof “supermajorities” in both California and Illinois.

“From Maine to Hawaii, Democratic candidates simply did a better job talking to voters and addressing issues that are important to working families,” said Mr. Sargeant, noting the Republicans had been projecting net gains at the state level this year going into the Nov. 6 vote.

One-party dominance can have direct policy consequences. States such as Florida and Pennsylvania with GOP dominance of the governorship and state legislature have been at the forefront of efforts to impose more stringent voter ID laws in recent years, while states where Democrats dominate such as Maryland and Massachusetts have led the way on legalizing gay marriage.

Party ticket loyalty at the state level could be a trickle-down effect from Washington’s increasingly partisan politics, experts say. But governing as a state legislator is very different than working at the federal level, said Tim Storey, elections analyst for the NCSL.

“At a time when D.C. is frozen and in gridlock, legislators have to get stuff done. They have to balance their budget, and to do that they have to compromise. [Partisan division] may be how voters vote but it’s not how legislators legislate,” Mr. Storey said.

Mr. Storey pointed to states such as Oregon, where the legislature had a productive year despite a House where the parties were tied and a closely divided Senate.

“For the most part, these folks are hard-wired to get stuff done,” he said. “What happens to them from the time they leave their state capital to the time they get to Washington mystifies us.”

- Washington Times