States where Republicans picked up legislature seats in 2006

[Jaggerjack]

We know Georgia's one of them.

What are the others?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

They definitely gained in Montana, because the Montana House switched from D to R control.  This list should be fairly easy to locate.

[Jaggerjack]

What about Alabama, Louisiana, and West Virginia?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The following are Republican gains, as defined by net change from Nov 2004 to Nov 2006.

AL Sen.  GOP +2
GA House GOP +3
ME Sen. GOP +1
MT House GOP +0* (Control D -> R)
MT Sen. GOP +1
OK Sen. GOP +2 (Control D -> Joint)
TX Sen. GOP +1

In the previously 50R-50D MT House, Democrats lost a seat to a Constitution Party candidate.  While Republicans did not gain seats in the MT House, they did gain control of the legislative body.  (In the MT House, the Governor (D) breaks ties in leadership.)

What about Alabama, Louisiana, and West Virginia?

See above for Alabama, Louisiana does not have State Legislative races in even-numbered years, and Democrats gained seats in West Virginia.

[Person Man]

This basically goes into the idea that the GOP is basically just digging in to its bubble in the must rural and culturally least developed of states.

[DanielX]

This basically goes into the idea that the GOP is basically just digging in to its bubble in the must rural and culturally least developed of states.

ME Sen. GOP +1?

Okay, Maine is fairly rural and undeveloped, but its hardly a right-wing stronghold...

[Person Man]

Yeah, but it appears to be an offlier and that republican had the coattails of a popular liberal republican running for office.

[Bacon King]

This basically goes into the idea that the GOP is basically just digging in to its bubble in the must rural and culturally least developed of states.

wtf mate? you can't make a trend based on the gains of a single year.

[Person Man]

Yeah...but it's not just this year. In 2004, the only states to make a more republican swing were located around the TWC and in the under developed reigons of the country.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Yeah, but it appears to be an offlier and that republican had the coattails of a popular liberal republican running for office.

Lord.  A GOP gain of a single seat in the Maine Senate had everything to do with local issues and nothing to do with Olympia Snowe.

Democrats made significant gains in the Maine State House last year.

[Kevinstat]

I'll agree with Mr. Moderate that the two GOP ME Senate pickups in '06 (they lost one seat for a net gain of 1, or a net gain/loss of 0 from the 2004 election) had nothing to do with Olympia Snowe coattails (although it's tough to rull that out entirely, as I don't know what other voters are thinking when they go to the polls).  But one of the two districts the GOP held had been won by the GOP last time (and may not have been won by a Democrat since the 60s before Senate districts were actually called districts, as counties elected 1 to 4 Senators on a sliding-scale and small-county biassed formula) and only went Democratic after the state Senator switched parties in the December after the election.  That ticked republican activists off big time, and posters saying "Hold the Mayo" with an Xd through "Art Mayo" next to it (Art Mayo was his name, and still is athough Senator is no longer part of it).  Local politics in Maine isn't nearly as agressive I don't think as in many parts of the country, and a bumper sticker targeting an individual state Legislator is pretty rare.  (I'd never seen it before, although I wouldn't be surprised if there had been "Defeat [former 19-year autocratic Democratic House Speaker and now Senate Assistant Majority Leader and perhaps slightly more mellow] John Martin.  Vote [whomever the local Republican candidate was] for State Legislature." back in the 80s and early 90s.)  So the Republicans were really focused on winning back that seat (which isn't nearly as Republican now as it's long streak going with the GOP would indicate, as Mayo had won a close race in 2002 and Democrats held all state House seats in districts overlapping with that Senate district going into the 2006 election although the Republicans picked up one of those seats as well), and according to a Republican lawyer from the district they picked a socially moderate candidate to run for the seat (Mayo had strayed from the GOP on all sorts of issues, and allegedly would actually leak GOP strategy to the Democrats; I wasn't too sad he lost even though I was a Democrat at the time, although I assumed at the time that angry conservatives had gotten a very conservative Republican to run for the seat and I wasn't thrilled about that).

The other state Senate seat the GOP picked up here last fall was my district.  There were multiple factors at play here, from the GOP picking (without visible dissension) its absolute best candidate to what may have been a quid pro quo from two years before on the Democratic side to later Democratic dissentions and an abortive run to an ultimately contested (and surprisingly close) Democratic primary to probably the strongest possible Democratic nominee (a recent state Senator) running for the Republican nominee's state House seat to the Democratic nominee (the 14-year incumbent Mayor of the second-largest municipality and largest city and focal point of the district) losing support in his hometown (don't appear to appease juvenile burglers with a free food program if you're counting on continued political support) which he only ended up carrying by only 6 votes out of almost 2500 cast to the kiss of death of the local paper's endorsement (not good for non-incumbent candidates for the state Senate in this area for whatever reason) to the Democrat being confined to a wheelchair which I hoped (I supported him) would make his door-to-door efforts look even better but may have caused unease among voters.  So, basically a perfect storm, with some rumbles two years before which I won't get into.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I bet the main factor in the Maine legislative races was Baldacci's unpopularity. The GOP was too weak to take him out, but they might've been able to capitalize on it in some areas.