Legislators in the 24 states where Republicans now hold total control plan to push a series of aggressive policy initiatives in the coming year aimed at limiting the power of the federal government and rekindling the culture wars. The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls […] Read more »
The Pernicious Effects of Gerrymandering
… Gerrymandering has leached much of the broader heterogeneity out of congressional districts, contributing to the echo-chamber effect, where members’ ideological predilections are reinforced, and not challenged, back home. A corollary is the racial segregation of districts—the fact that so many Republican districts now have barely more than trace elements […] Read more »
Democrats’ Downballot Troubles
Democrats lost badly at the congressional level in 2014. That, of course, got a lot of coverage. Democrats also took huge losses at the state level. That didn’t get a lot of attention. State legislators get coverage when they do something stupid or illegal (or both). Even so, Democrats losses […] Read more »
California the Exception in a Nation Increasingly Voting Republican
Mark DiCamillo, director of The Field Poll The 2014 midterm election saw a continuation of the electoral resurgence of the Republican Party across most of the country during the six-year period since Barack Obama was elected president. Not only did Republicans regain control of the Senate, picking up eight seats, […] Read more »
Is ‘Demographics as Destiny’ Overrated?
“Demographics as destiny” was one of the major themes that came out of the 2012 election. It was argued that Democrats, with their strong support from the growing minority population, were en route to becoming a long-lasting majority party. And Republicans, tied to a slowly declining white population, were on […] Read more »
States Benefiting Most From Obama’s Health Law Elected Republicans
In places where the uninsured rate plummeted this year, Republicans still scored big electoral victories. Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia — states that saw substantial drops in the proportion of their residents without insurance — all elected Republican Senate candidates who oppose the Affordable Care Act. Control of the West […] Read more »