Mississippi/Alabama

[Filuwaúrdjan]

You've also got to make a big difference between rural areas and suburbs.

Very, very true. A good measure of an areas politics is the sort of people it elects to the State Legislature... and there's a huge difference between the sort of people the rural South likes to elect and the sort the sunbelty suburbs like to elect

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Kerry bombed in the Hill Country because the Evangelicals there thought he was too socially liberal etc.
Note that most of them were happy to split their tickets and vote for Democratic state legislatures and (in one case) House.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

When the states suburbanise enough I guess

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ay that be true. Tha real problem is allthem nesh buggers

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Are Dixiecrats still alive and well in the Mississippi and Alabama state legislatures?

Dave

Oh yes. Very much so.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

if those Democratic legislators who currently compose the majority in both the Alabama and Mississippi state legislatures were to retire, who would likely to replace them -on average?  Republicans, or other Democrats?

Depends on the district in question. Certainly most Hill Country districts aren't going to flip, even with a retiring incumbent. The ones that will, are the ones that were rural when the current incumbent was elected and have steadily suburbanised. Rural districts in the southern parts of each state might as well.

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Less than the Republicans would like to think; note that the AL Democrats made a net *gain* in the State House last November, and the MS Dems (or it may have been the AL Dems again) won a special election for a State Senate (or was it State House?) seat a few months back.

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In some cases yes, but generally... no.