Red State Blue State Part II

If Democrats are turning red states bluer, then the states they’re leaving behind should get redder. The chart below show legislative gains/losses in 15 states the GOP hasn’t won for the Presidency since the 1980s. The 7 states on top are ones where Republicans didn’t win any congressional seats in 2010. Republicans cleaned up in the ones on the bottom, gaining 22 seats total. California is excluded because it’s so heavily gerrymandered with almost no seats flipping either way all decade. New Jersey didn’t have elections this year.


The group at the top has been held up to show how the Republican wave bypassed the northeast and west, but that was only at a congressional level. Republicans made net gains in almost every state, and took two houses in Maine and now have the same number as the Democrats in the Oregon legislature. While gaining 14 in the Connecticut legislature and 15 in Massachusetts isn’t a sign the states will swing GOP in 2012, it is a sign that the wave didn’t miss these states.

The second group may be another story. Before the election Democrats controlled 14 of the 16 chambers in this group. Now they control 7. There’s no chance Maryland, New York, or Illinois will go GOP, but the other 5 could be up for grabs.