State Legislative Elections 2004

[rbt48]

Nebraska's officially non-partisan Unicameral will remain overwhelmingly Republican.  Right now it is 36 R, 13 D, 3 I.  Legilative candidates run without party label here, though the state party clearly pulls for and helps fund the candidates from their respective party.  The primary in May is also non-partisan and the top two finishers advance to the November election.  Hence, you can end up with two from the same party contesting for a seat in Nov.  I know at least two districts have two Republicans running this year.

[rbt48]

Correction on Iowa.  The State H of R is still Republican (barely) by a 51 to 49 seat margin.  The State Senate is tied, 25 to 25, after a 4 seat Democratic pickup.  (The Lt Gov does not preside, so they will have to develop a power sharing scheme for the state senate.)

Incidentally, from the NCSL, it shows these nationwide totals:
State Legislature lower houses:
Democrat:  2706, Republican: 2689, Other:  14  Undecided:  2

State Legislature upper houses:
Democrat: 950,  Republican: 966, Other:  3,  Undecided:  3

Grand total (calculated by me):
Democrat: 3656,  Republican: 3655, Other:  17,  Undecided:  5

Now that is a pretty narrow nationwide margin!

[rbt48]

At this point, there are three races for the Maine House of Representatives where recounts have yet to officially determine the winner (well, technically none of the results are official until the Governor certifies them as such, but you know what I mean).

In many states, the legislature is the judge of the elections of its members.  This is also true of Congress.  Do you know if this is the case in Maine?

There have been a few recounts in Texas, and there is still a possiblity that the losing candidate will ask the Legislature  to make a decision.

There is also a Texas Senate race where the winning candidate is being challenged by a losing candidate, who is not so incidentally his former mistress.  She claims that he doesn't live in the district (which is a requirement in Texas), and he owns a house elsewhere that he has filed for a homestead exemption (which is only granted for owner-occupied houses).  He claims that while it is true that while he owns a house elsewhere, that he and his wife spend most of their time at his mother's house in the district.

Is this winning State Senate candidate a Republican or a Democrat?

I think in most states, the Secretary of State certifies the results, but probably, as with US House and Senate, the membership of eash state legislative house makes the final decision of who is seated and which races are subject to further review.