In both Wisconsin and Michigan, Democrats followed a similar formula last month to win the governorship and other key statewide offices: big turnout in urban centers and gains in white-collar suburbs.
But in each state, Republican dominance of small-town and rural communities—reinforced by a highly partisan gerrymander of legislative district lines—allowed the party to maintain control of both state legislative chambers. Now both states are embroiled in bitter postelection struggles over a flurry of proposals from the GOP-controlled legislatures to limit the power of the incoming statewide Democratic officials—and to dilute the voting power of the urban-based coalitions that elected them. …
These fights capture the virtual collapse, especially in the Republican Party, of the informal constraints that established boundaries in political combat. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic