What happened to the West Virginia legislature in 1910?

[Crumpets]

I was on Wikipedia, and I noticed this in the history of the West Virginia House of Delegates:

1908 - 26 D, 60 R
1910 - 63 D, 23 R
1912 - 33 D, 53 R

That's a net gain of 37 seats by the Democrats, followed by a 30 seat loss just two years later in an 86-person chamber.

I can't find the numbers from the Senate to see if they follow the same pattern, but did the Democrats do something in around 1910 to make themselves wildly popular, and then back to wildly unpopular in West Virginia?

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

I'm guessing this is an error.

[(Still) muted by Kalwejt until March 31]

Dems made big gains in the House around Ohio in 1910.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Taft was unpopular and TR's intervention in 1912 was in part because he thought Taft would lose as GOP nominee.

Don't know if that explains anything in this case though.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Infighting left the party in a dysfunctional state in 1910, especially since party boss Sen. Stephen Elkins was in declining health. The tie in the state Senate as a result of that election resulted in a compromise that gave Democrats the appointment of the state's US senators that year, while otherwise leaving control of the WV Senate to the Republicans.  The US House delegation went from 0 to 4 out of 5 Democrat.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

It was a big midterm victory for the Democrats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_1910
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_1910_and_1911

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Any progressives that split the vote with Republicans in those races?

[SoLongAtlas]

It's accurate but I can't really find much info on the 1910 WV legislative elections. The SoS keeps election records going back only to 1950. JSTOR has been slim to none on results. The Speaker in 1911 following the election was C.M. Wetzel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Speakers_of_the_West_Virginia_House_of_Delegates so the result looks to be valid.

[SoLongAtlas]

Also found this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_West_Virginia#20th_century_through_1949

State House
63 D
23 R

State Senate
15 R
15 D
During the 1911-12 sessions, Republicans held the Senate Presidency under Henry D. Hatfield while each party controlled half the committees; During the 1913-14 sessions, Democrats held the Senate Presidency under Samuel V. Woods, while Republicans were able to select their choice of Sergeant-at-Arms and Clerk and control of all committees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_West_Virginia#cite_note-11
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160120/wv-has-a-brief-colorful-history-of-deadlocked-senates

As for the original question, probably they elected a massive wave of state House Dems to check the then current governor Glasscock who was a real pain, martial law 3 times, sequestering legislators with guards, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Glasscock