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With the 2010 Election
Results Finalized, the 2011 U.S. Congress Emerges!
The most profound change
as a result of the 2010 election was to the U.S. House of Representatives. The
House lost all four of the political Independents serving, which
means the two primary political
parties have taken all of the seats; There are now 242
Republican Representatives and 193 Democratic Representatives. The Senate
experienced changes with the 2010 election, as well, retaining two Independent
Representatives and gaining one
candidate who ran as a political Independent
without the support of a major political party in order to win
their seat. There are now 46 Republican Senators, 51
Democratic Senators, and 3 Independent Senators who will caucus with one of the
two
parties. The most recent Senator to run as an Independent was
Lisa Murkowski, who lost her Republican nomination in Alaska and
then ran a politically Independent campaign to win back her
seat. The over all election results for 2010 are as follows:
There were 90,706,582 American citizens who voted in the election, down by 40 million from the 2008 election in which
132,645,504 American citizens voted. (See the 2010 United
States
election results for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate
below.)
The 2010 Governor races resulted in moderate gains for the Republican
party, illustrated on the map below. There are now 29 Republican
Governors,
20 Democratic Governors, and 1 Independent Governor. An interesting
fact about
the year 2010 was that it was the last year before the U.S. Census would
change how many representatives are in each of the states. This
allows the Governors in some elected states to make changes
to the House of Representatives districts. However, the Governors of these
particular
states will still need to work with their State Legislatures on
forming the
new districts. The states that gain representatives are Arizona,
Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas,
Utah, and Washington. The states that lose representatives are
Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania. (See the 2010 United States
election results for State Governors below.)
It is hard to
believe with all the talk of how important the Independent voters
were in the 2010 election that there was an actual loss of
Independent seats in Congress. The problem might be that
with elections becoming more expensive, individual candidates are
forced to sign up with an existing party rather than running on their own,
simply because existing parties have fund
raising experience and connections. One possible caution in
this regard might be that there are no rules in place to stop a candidate from joining a party
in order to win an election and then later on, after
in office, deciding to become a political Independent, thus breaking ties
with the party that assisted them with funding.
The
112th U.S. Congress of 2011
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The House Floor
There are 435 seats in the U.S. House. In
the 2010 election, 64 seats changed for the two political
parties in office. This resulted in 242 seats held
by
Republicans and 193 held by Democrats. There aren't any Independent
seats currently. (See the
chart to the left for current party
standings in this branch.) |
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The Senate Floor
There are 100 seats
in the U.S. Senate. In the 2010 election, there was a change of 6
seats between the two political parties in office, which
resulted in 46 seats held
by Republicans and 51 seats held by Democrats. There
is one candidate who ran as a political Independent and won,
which technically means there are 3 Independents serving in the U.S. Senate.
(See the
chart to the left for current party
standings in this branch.) |
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|
...The 2011
U.S. Governors
|
by Political
Party..... |
State Governors
| Democrats |
Republicans |
Independents |
| AR |
AL |
RI |
| CA |
AK |
|
| CO |
AZ |
|
| CT |
FL |
|
| HI |
GA |
|
| IL |
ID |
|
| MD |
IA |
|
| MA |
KS |
|
| MN |
ME |
|
| NH |
MI |
|
| NY |
NE |
|
| OR |
NV |
|
| VT |
NM |
|
| DE |
OH |
|
| KY |
OK |
|
| MO |
PA |
|
| MT |
SC |
|
| NC |
SD |
|
| WA |
TN |
|
| WV |
TX |
|
| |
UT |
|
| |
WI |
|
| |
WY |
|
| |
IN |
|
| |
LA |
|
| |
MS |
|
| |
NJ |
|
| |
ND |
|
| |
VI |
|
|
..... |
Resources
for Information:
American National Election Studies
http://www.electionstudies.org/
Federal
Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov/
U.S.
Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/index.html
Pew
Research Center
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1207/republican-party-identification-slips-nationwide-pennsylvania-specter-switch
Create
a Graph
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx
Do
it Yourself Map
http://monarch.tamu.edu/
U.S.
House of Representatives
http://www.house.gov/
U.S.
Senate
http://www.senate.gov/
United
States Election Project
http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm
U.S.
Census Data
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/
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