Texas House Speaker Joe Straus to head national push to turn more legislatures red

[TexasTowelie]

AUSTIN — Texas House Speaker Joe Straus had to curb his enthusiasm Tuesday when, as expected, he was named the head of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, a national GOP group that aims to turn more legislatures red.

Republicans have been annihilating the Democrats’ “bench” of state officeholders so rapidly in recent cycles that you could almost read a how-do-I-top-that lament in Straus’ reaction.

“We have a lot of ground to defend,” Straus said in a statement.

Boy, is that an understatement.

After the 2014 midterms, Republicans held majorities in 69 of 99 state legislative chambers. That was a 10-chamber increase. Back in prehistoric times — before the 2010 election, to be precise — the GOP controlled just 36 state legislative bodies.

Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/texas-house-speaker-joe-straus-to-head-national-push-to-turn-more-legislatures-red.html/

[LonePirate]

1. I think we have reached the apex of Repub dominance at the state level

They will reign supreme for a few more years; but Dems will start clawing their way back in 2016 as voters wake up and realize how crazy and incompetent their Repub state legislators are. Keep an eye on the FL and TX legislatures as those majorities will begin eroding in the not so distant future while legislatures in places like VA and WI return to Democratic hands.