That means that while Democratic Governor John Lynch retained his seat –and the position to veto any of the legislature’s pending bills to repeal the state’s marriage equality law—there are enough votes now in both chambers to overturn that veto. It gets worse.
Republicans took over the majorities in both chambers of the state legislatures in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Alabama –states which had both houses dominated by Democrats going into Tuesday’s votes.
In Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where only one chamber had a Republican majority, now both are dominated by Republicans.
And the National Conference of State Legislatures reports that the Minnesota Senate will now, for the first time in history, be controlled by Republicans. The Maine Senate, too, has switched from a Democratic to Republican majority.
In all 23 state legislatures are now completely dominated by Republicans, 15 by Democrats, seven are divided between the parties. The majorities in five states are still undetermined.
“It was worse than I thought,” said openly gay State Rep. Jim Splaine in New Hampshire. According to the NCSL, the state’s 400-seat House will next year be comprised of 296 Republicans and 104 Democrats. It’s 24-seat senate will include 19 Republicans and five Democrats.
Both easily exceed the two-thirds needed to overturn a veto.
The domination of Republicans in the legislatures is likely to mean a much more Republican Congress for the next ten years, as state legislatures in most states approve the lines for Congressional districts. Redistricting for those districts begins next year.
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