CHICAGO: Republicans won a big prize after making huge gains in state legislatures: a once-in-a-decade chance to literally redraw political maps.
The landslide which gave Republicans control of the US House of Representatives in one of the chamber’s largest political swings also propelled Republicans to historic gains at the state level in Tuesday’s key mid-term elections.
Republicans now control more state legislatures than at any point since 1928 and picked up a net gain of at least nine governor’s mansions, which means they have unprecedented control over how to reapportion political districts next year based on new census population figures as that task is handled by legislatures in all but a handful of states.
That will have a “huge impact that ripples through the rest of the decade” for state, local and congressional elections, said Tim Storey, a redistricting expert at the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL.)
“The makeup of the district – whether it has more or less of one party’s loyalists – will have a big say in who has the advantage before the election takes place,” Storey said in a recent interview.
Republicans managed to gain control of legislatures in 11 states – bringing their total to 25 of 50 states, according to the NCSL.
Thanks to wins in gubernatorial races, Republicans now have total control of at least 19 states while Democrats control just nine. Races in six states were still too close to call and control is divided in the remaining 16.
US President Barack Obama said he looked forward to working with Republicans after their triumph and admitted Americans were “deeply frustrated” at the slow pace of the economic recovery.
He did not concede that a Republican mid-term election rout represented a public rejection of his agenda but took “direct responsibility” for the slow economy.
