Posted on 06/22/2013 6:45:56 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
When did we win the AR legislature, 2012? It was still Dem when they redrew the districts for the 2012 elections.
Yup, won both chambers just in November. Gerrymandering couldn’t help them maintain a narrow control. In the State Senate, the GOP won 6 seats, going from 20D-15R to 21R-14D (when Huckster left office with the ‘06 elections, the Dems had a commanding 27 to 8 majority, and had those same numbers until 2011). In the State House, they won 5 (but a crucial 5), going from 54D-46R to 51R-48D-1 Green (and contrast that in ‘06, they were outnumbered 3-to-1, 75D-25R, gaining 3 seats in ‘08 and a whopping 18 seats in ‘10).
I observed back in the mid 2000s that the key problem the AR GOP had was that they had only two areas in the state where they won legislative seats, and those were up in the heavily GOP NW corner (from Ft. Smith north to the MO border) and in suburban Little Rock. They smashed through the rural Democrat dominance outside those areas in 2010, although they’ve got many more seats to win (indeed, the Dems having 48 seats in the House is very tenuous — 13 of those seats were won by at or below 10%, and several more incumbents drew no challengers, but will be open seats before long because of term limits).
I expect AR will end up like it has or is trending in the other Southern states, with at or above 70% GOP strength, with all the Dem legislative members hailing from the urban areas (trendy/upscale liberal White enclaves & poor Black) & declining Black SE river counties (though I hold out tenuous hope that some Black pols will follow the lead of LA’s Elbert Guillory, since they will be completely shut out of power otherwise, and that’s not smart politics).
That was my first thought when I read the Drudge headline. The media is witing rave articles about Lindsey Graham, and look who Lindsey Graham is agreeing with, the likes of Schumer and Menendez, well, and Rubio.
No offense to you folks in New Jersey but you should have your state’s nickname changed to the Garbage State. After all in the past few years you’ve given us Chris Christie, Bob Menendez and the Jersey Shore. I’d say that’s quite a collection of garbage.
For his prime base, it's got to be something on the order that either he or some members of his close family are Tea Party members and still in the conservative closet.
State governments NEVER had the right to recall Senators even back when they elected them, the term is for 6 years. It is extremely clear cut and settled law so why people are still trying to recall US Senators I have no idea. They should do something useful with their time like find a candidate who can win the upcoming Senate election or urging criminal investigation which could force Melendez to resign
Hostage, your idea would see nothing more than partisan recalls of Republican Senators by rat legislatures and vice versa. Perpetual election.
Recall itself is a progressive nightmare. Even our famed “victory” in Cali didn’t work out so great did it? The recent union spured recall in Wisconsin cost us millions to defend the rightfully elected Governor from an attempted coup and temporarily gave rats control of the State Senate.
Me, I’m on the side of the people not the federal, state or local governments, which why I am glad the people of states (who are “the states” I am the State.) choose their own Senators now rather than have their betters in the state houses do it for them.
The Communist party state legislators think our rat Senate majority is doing JUST FINE “serving their interests” which are to screw the American people. RINO State legislators feel likewise about our RINO Senators. Politicians are generally scum so having them choose each other is a titanically bad idea.
That would be really swell even if they only do to it stay in power. Any progress in lessing that stranglehold...
I disagree that there would be perpetual elections. I see accountability to state interests. McCain flouts state interests and he would surely behave different if he was subject to recall by the state legislature.
More legislatures are controlled by conservatives than are controlled by democrats. Republican US Senators that are elected in states controlled by democrats are RINOs.
It is usually the campaign that has the most money that wins the US Senate seat. With recall provisions at the state level it would be who is more adroit at handling state interests which was the original intent of the US Constitution.
Either give the state legislatures back some power over their US Senators or repeal the 17th Amendment.
Here’s what Mark Levin has to say about it:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3034400/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.