Civility | Democracy
States Shift Towards Partisan Rule
As states increasingly polarize towards single-party controlled governance, organizations like The Common Good must take the lead in showing that bipartisanship can and does work. That in order to have a government for all the people, political leaders must factor in voters’ wishes from all parties and not just their own supporters.
The NY Times describes the growing state by state split here:
One-Party Control Opens States to Partisan Rush
New York Times, Monica Davey – Come January, more than two-thirds of the states will be under single-party control, raising the prospect that bold partisan agendas — on both ends of the political spectrum — will flourish over the next couple of years.
Though the Nov. 6 election maintained divided government in Washington, the picture is starkly different in capitals from California to Florida: one party will hold the governor’s office and majorities in both legislative chambers in at least 37 states, the largest number in 60 years and a significant jump from even two years ago.
“For quite a period of time, people were voting for divided government because they wanted compromise, middle ground,” said State Senator Thomas M. Bakk, the minority leader — and soon to be majority leader — in Minnesota. Democrats there seized control of both legislative chambers, creating single-party rule in St. Paul for the first time in more than two decades. “But they’ve come to realize that compromise is getting awfully hard to accomplish. The parties have gotten too rigid. Maybe this whole experiment with voting for divided government is starting to wane. I think that’s what happened here.”
