Karl Kurtz, continuing his regional review of the election at the Thicket, takes a look at the Midwest. There is party balance in midwestern legislatures with, if my math is right, an 11-11 chamber split with Republicans controlling all of 4 states (the Dakotas, Kansas, and Missouri), the Democrats controlling all of 4 states (Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois), and a party split in 3 states (Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.) Nebraska has a non-partisan thing going on.
With respect to Indiana:
The title of “ticket-splittingest” state probably belongs to Indiana (in competition with Vermont in the East). Sen. Barack Obama carried the state with 50 percent of the vote to Sen. McCain’s 49 percent by winning only 15 of 92 counties. But Republican Governor Mitch Daniels was reelected with 58 percent of the vote, winning 77 of the state’s 92 counties. Obama carried Indianapolis by 105,000 votes, but Daniels managed a 50,000 vote majority in that city. With all of this split-ticket voting at the top of the ballot, the net change in the Legislature was a gain of only one seat in the House for the Democrats. The Senate remains under Republican control by a 33-17 margin.
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