The Hotline
March 17, 2006

There are 7382 state legislative seats in the country, and their division speaks to the larger political divide throughout the country. 3662 seats are held by Dems, while 3640 seats are held by GOPers. 31 seats are held by independents or are vacant, and the 49 state sens in NE are technically nonpartisan.

Given the amount of turnover - DLCC Comm. Dir. Lauren Spangler says the counts change “almost daily” - and the number of special elections held since elections in '04, we thought that a noticable swing in special elections might be more indicative of a coming political tide than the much more rare Congressional special election.