Governing magazine’s Louis Jacobson pays special attention to state legislatures across the country, and he’s out this month with a review of a dozen legislators to watch – six from each party – just in time for the New Year.

Some of the Democratic names may be familiar to you because of the leadership they’ve already shown in 2011 and in recent years:

• Stacey Abrams - Georgia House (D)
  House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, who is the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly, earned degrees from Spelman College, Yale Law School and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. She’s a tax attorney and a former deputy city attorney for Atlanta. Despite being in the minority in the Legislature, observers credit her with winning concessions from freshman Republican Gov. Nathan Deal on a revamp of the HOPE scholarship program, a merit-based higher education fund for Georgia residents, and for putting up a strong fight against a GOP tax plan….
  

• Reuven Carlyle - Washington House (D)
  …After a career in the cellphone and software industries, Carlyle won an open seat in 2008 representing a trendy area of Seattle. He has made a point of crossing party lines and taking on figures in his own party. “I believe the people of our district elected me in 2008 to vigorously seek intellectual and moral independence from old-fashioned orthodoxies,” he wrote on his campaign website. “We live in a 21st-century global community and stereotypical positions -- liberal, conservative, Democrat and Republican -- have little bearing on our children’s future…”
  

• Wendy Davis - Texas Senate (D)
  …Sen. Wendy Davis, who represents Fort Worth, used the limited tools available to her to achieve spectacular results. Hours before last year’s session was to end, Davis filibustered a bill that included $4 billion in school cuts. That forced Republican Gov. Rick Perry -- who was on his way to becoming a presidential candidate -- to call a special session. It also turned Davis into “an icon among Democratic activists in Texas,” says Mark P. Jones, a Rice University political scientist….
  

• Ted Lieu - California Senate (D)
  ...Before election to the Senate in 2011, Lieu chaired the Assembly’s Rules, and Banking and Finance committees, where he was a key mover of legislation on such topics as foreclosure prevention, child sex offenders, domestic violence, cyberbullying, sewage spills and health insurance.
  “Ted Lieu is that rare Democratic political figure who combines it all,” says California-based Democratic strategist Garry South. “He’s smart and well educated, articulate, pleasant and professional to deal with, center-left while also being a former JAG and current reserve officer in the Air Force, has a photogenic young family, and is part of the fastest-growing ethnic group in the largest state....
  

• Vincent Sheheen - South Carolina Senate (D)
  Sen. Vincent Sheheen exceeded all expectations in his 2010 race for governor. Running in a strongly Republican state in a strongly Republican year, he lost to Nikki Haley -- who attracted considerable national media attention -- by just four percentage points. An effective legislator, he had sponsored 18 bills that became state law prior to his gubernatorial campaign….
  

• Darrin Williams - Arkansas House (D)
  Rep. Darrin Williams was adopted and raised in Little Rock. He’s a second-termer in a state with a three-term limit for state representatives, so he’s positioned to become a strong contender for speaker -- which would make him the first African-American to hold the position. He has already chaired the House Judiciary Committee, where he won a measure of bipartisan support for legislation….
  

Please read the full column for longer profiles of each legislator. We expect big things from all six of them, in addition to the many accomplishments they've already racked up.

This week saw two major developments in Arkansas’ 9th state Senate district. First, on Tuesday, Democratic state Rep. Tracy Pennartz formally announced her challenge to incumbent GOP Senator “Speedy” Bruce Holland (more on that in a minute), giving Democrats a top-tier candidate for this conservative-leaning district:

During her public service as a State Representative, Pennartz co-sponsored part of the largest tax cut in Arkansas history which has cut the grocery tax by hundreds of millions of dollars and she is committed to “finishing the job.” In the 2011 legislative session, Pennartz voted for more than $35 million in tax cuts to provide tax relief for small business owners and hard-working Arkansas families.

Due to her strong legislative record, Representative Pennartz is a recipient of the "Legislative Award" from the Mental Health Council of Arkansas and the Arkansas Veterans of Foreign Wars. Other awards include the "Distinguished Legislator Award" from the Arkansas Municipal Association and the "Friend Of Education" Award from the Fort Smith Classroom Association.

But now Holland, who also faces a potentially bitter GOP primary, is in the news again, albeit for a vastly different reason.

His trial was yesterday:

Trial is set for Thursday afternoon for a state lawmaker charged with leading police on a high speed chase last January.

State Senator Bruce Holland of Greenwood allegedly hit speeds of up to 100 miles an hour as he led Perry County Sheriff’s Deputy Ray Byrd on a more than 20-mile chase. Holland admits he was speeding, but claims he didn’t realize there was a police car behind him.

Not only was Holland convicted yesterday of fleeing from police, but the Senator has already allegedly violated a judge's order that he appear for fingerprinting.

It remains to be seen whether headlines like “state lawmaker charged with leading police on a high speed chase” will be fatal to Senator Holland’s career, but they are sure to put an otherwise conservative-leaning district in play for the Democrats next fall.

The thoroughly debunked, racially charged conspiracy theory of “birtherism” has its roots in the 2008 presidential election. Fringe elements of the Republican Party fixated on the false notion that Barack Obama was not eligible to be president of the United States because he supposedly was born in another country. No major GOP candidates promoted this lie at the time, and birthers continued to scratch at the fringe of the Republican Party for a couple of years.

In the year following President Obama’s inauguration, it seemed as though birtherism would remain the purview of ultra-conservative media personalities like Jerome “Swift Boat” Corsi and Rush Limbaugh. But the nature and scope of birtherism have since changed dramatically.

Just a few months ago, Republican state legislators began working feverishly to mainstream the birther lie. Supporters of “Birther Queen” Orly Taitz ascended to leadership positions in their caucuses. Legislation based around the notion that Obama’s presidency is illegitimate began popping up in statehouses. With slight variations here and there, these “birther bills” question the validity of President Obama’s Certification of Live Birth by requiring presidential candidates to provide various documents proving they were born in the United States in order to qualify for a state’s ballot.

Birther bills have been filed in legislatures all over the country this year, and not just in “red” states. While this list may well continue expanding, it currently includes

• Arkansas
• Arizona (GOP Gov. Brewer just vetoed this birther bill.)
• Connecticut
• Georgia
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Louisiana*
• Maine
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee
• Texas

*Republican Governor Bobby Jindal has stated publicly that he would sign a birther bill, should the Louisiana legislature send one to his desk.

Meanwhile, on the federal level birtherism began attract renewed attention as the potential 2012 GOP presidential field addressed the “issue.”

Enter Donald Trump.

Shortly after announcing that he may launch a long-shot run for the GOP presidential nomination, Trump began pushing birtherism in a big way.

Why?

Months of Republican state legislators’ attempts to legitimize the birther lie through legislation has helped validate the GOP base’s suspicions that President Obama is not “one of us.” This cementing of conservatives’ views on the issue is demonstrated by polling that reveals 45 percent of Republicans believe he was born in another country, as The New York Times reported yesterday. Last July, a poll revealed that 41 percent of Republicans believed President Obama was “probably” or “definitely” born in another country.

Republican state legislators helped provide Donald Trump with a path to credibility with the conservative base.

Will Trump’s next issue position involve union-busting? Perhaps he’ll take a stand against the non-existent problem of sharia law. Or maybe he’ll advocate for the use of gold and silver as currency.

Whatever Trump’s next political move may be, look for its roots in GOP statehouse crazy.

It's very clear by now that a lot of Arkansans walked into the voting booth Nov. 2 and simply filled in the bubble next to anyone's name that didn't have a "D" beside it.

That’s the best explanation David Koon at the Arkansas Times could produce for why Arkansas voters would elect Republican Loy Mauch to represent the 26th state House district near Hot Springs. Mauch is a proud, active member and a former regional chairperson of a racist hate group (designated as such by the non-partisan Southern Poverty Law Center, the leading national authority on such groups).

For more background on the organization Mauch helped lead and still pays dues to, here’s an excerpt from the SPLC’s description of the group, known as the League of the South:

The League of the South is a neo-Confederate group that advocates for a second Southern secession and a society dominated by “European Americans.” The league believes the “godly” nation it wants to form should be run by an “Anglo-Celtic” (read: white) elite that would establish a Christian theocratic state and politically dominate blacks and other minorities. (…)

The league, which originally had bragged about the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) did not then list it as a hate group, quickly became more radical. It came out against interracial marriage. [Founder and current leader Michael] Hill publicly defended antebellum slavery as “God-ordained” and another league leader described segregation as necessary to racial “integrity” of both races, black and white alike. Hill called for a hierarchal society composed of “superiors, equals and inferiors, each protected in their legal privileges” and attacked egalitarianism as a “fatal heresy.” He said people other than white Christians would be allowed to live in his South, but only if they bowed to “the cultural dominance of the Anglo-Celtic people and their institutions.” Where the goal of secession was once largely rhetorical, it became a seriously stated aim.

In 2000, with the group now claiming some 9,000 members (that number would soon grow to 15,000), the SPLC began listing the league as a hate group.

Beyond that of his associations, Mauch has his own history of neo-confederate radicalism, including showing admiration for the assassin who murdered President Lincoln:

In 2004, angered by the city of Hot Springs' refusal to remove a statue of Abraham Lincoln displayed in the Hot Springs Civic and Convention Center, the Keller Camp [a local branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, commanded by Mauch] hosted a conference in Hot Springs called "Seminar on Abraham Lincoln — Truth vs. Myth," with a keynote address called "Homage to John Wilkes Booth."

In response to the 2008 election of Barack Obama – before President Obama was even sworn in – Mauch used the Confederate battle flag as a rallying cry to declare the new President illegitimate:

"The government has lost its moral authority over God-fearing Americans," Mauch wrote to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "I wish more patriots like James Vandiver would take their stand for what the Confederate Battle Flag truly symbolizes."

When asked what the Confederate flag symbolizes, Mauch said: "It's a symbol of constitutional government. It's a symbol of Jesus Christ above all else. It's a symbol of Biblical government."

An individual like Loy Mauch is a disgrace to elected office. But sadly, Arkansas is probably stuck with Mauch until the next election in 2012.

Democrats in dark-red states like Utah and Idaho know they have a tough road ahead of them this November, and we at the DLCC salute them for taking up the challenge. Discounting candidate home states, these were George W. Bush’s two best states in 2004, and legislative Democrats there are more outnumbered than anywhere else in the country.

But despite these challenges, Democrats in both states have successfully fielded enough legislative candidates to deny the Republicans a free ride to the majority.

The Utah Dems did quite well, in fact, fielding candidates in 60 of 75 House districts and 13 of 15 Senate Districts. Even though only half of the Senate is up for election this year, the seven Republican seats being contested are enough to flip the chamber if Democrats ran the table.

Idaho was a little bit dicier for the party, but according to the Secretary of State’s official candidate list (PDF), Democrats successfully fielded enough candidates to capture control in both chambers, and every competitive district will feature a Democratic candidate.

This is in stark contrast to the Republican recruiting performance in Arkansas and West Virginia, two states which were among John McCain’s best performers. Despite this advantage, Republicans still conceded control of both State Senates by failing to field enough candidates to win a majority. Republicans have the same problem in the Illinois Senate.

This means two things. First, it means Democrats are in better shape organizationally and at the grassroots in the two most challenging states for Democrats than the Republicans are in some states where they need to outperform this November.

Second, it means Democrats start this election cycle with a 3-1 lead in chambers where one party’s poor recruiting has made it mathematically impossible for them to take the majority. Add to that a 8-1 lead in chambers that aren’t up for election this year (Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Virginia), and it’s pretty clear Republicans have a lot of catching up to do.

West Virginia isn’t the only state where Republicans have legislative recruiting troubles. Yesterday afternoon was the filing deadline in Arkansas, and the Republicans’ field in that state is even more of a disaster than in West Virginia.

According to the Secretary of State’s list of officially filed candidates, Arkansas Republicans largely abandoned the field in three key races:

• State House: Republicans failed to field a single candidate in 44 out of 100 State House seats. That means Democrats only have to win seven of the remaining 56 seats to guarantee a majority.
  
  

• State Senate: Arkansas Republicans also left uncontested 8 of the 17 State Senate seats up for grabs in 2010. Between these and the Republican-held seats they have to defend, it is now mathematically impossible for Republicans to win control of the chamber.
  
  

• Attorney General: One of three statewide offices Republicans failed to contest, the Attorney General race is significant because the winner sits on the three-member Board of Apportionment, which will redistrict the state legislature in 2011. Democrats are now guaranteed at least one of the three seats.

For Republicans, it's embarrassing enough that this happened in a state John McCain carried by 20 percent. But more surprising still, the GOP couldn’t even find people willing to run in seats that should be at the top of their target list.

To give just one example, we had been watching House District 21, where the incumbent Democrat announced his resignation effective June 6th. McCain earned nearly 65 percent of the two-party vote in that district, but not a single Republican candidate stepped up to run for the open seat.

Since we mentioned Oklahoma Democrat Eric Proctor’s pledge to sponsor legislation banning insurance companies from denying coverage for survivors of domestic violence, we should point out that Arkansas Democrats successfully passed similar legislation earlier this year:

Six months after the Women’s Health Summit, Governor Beebe signed ACT 619 into law. The Act adds “status as a victim of domestic abuse” to the list of attributes that insurers may not use as the sole justification for denying an individual health insurance coverage.

Congratulations to all of the advocates in Arkansas who worked on this issue.

Every vote against this bill came from a Republican -– to the party’s shame. Thankfully for the people of Arkansas, Democrats dominate both legislative chambers, and those Democrats voting on the bill supported it unanimously.

Republicans right now are doing everything they can to prove they’re out of touch. Case in point?

A Republican state senator in Arkansas has demanded the repeal of the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution. Specifically, he claims that popular elections have somehow made senators “less responsive to the people,” as the Associated Press described his comments.

For those unfamiliar, the 17th Amendment requires the direct election of U.S. Senators (prior to ratification in 1913, senators were chosen by their respective state legislatures). Amazingly, the Arkansas Republican who proposed repealing the amendment is also a rumored US Senate candidate. And since Arkansas Democrats hold leads of 72-28 in the State House and 27-8 in the State Senate, repealing the 17th Amendment would just about end any chance of anyone from his party winning a U.S. Senate seat.

But despite the Republican’s obviously flawed logic, the 17th Amendment is a source of some interesting academic debate –- particularly for us at the DLCC. Following our success in the 2008 elections, Democrats had complete control of 27 state legislatures and controlled one legislative house in another 8 states. If US Senators were chosen by legislators in the same proportion, Democrats would hold a 62-seat majority (a rough count, to be sure, as an exact estimate would involve many more variables than simple chamber control).

In a more abstract sense, some have argued that the 17th Amendment irreversibly undermined federalism by severing the only direct link between state governments and federal policymaking. Senators would be less likely to preempt state laws, for instance, if lawmakers back home could fire them at the end of their terms. At the same time, popular elections are a much more transparent process for choosing such powerful officials.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate aren't the only lawmakers making room for a new colleague this week.

The Arkansas House of Representatives is also gaining a new Democrat.

The Associate Press reports:

Arkansas state Rep. Richard Carroll said Wednesday he plans to switch when the Democrat-controlled Arkansas Legislature adjourns Friday.

Rep. Carroll is currently the country's highest-ranking elected official from the Green Party.

For Democratic State Senator Paul Bookout, leadership runs in the family. Nearly two decades ago, Sen. Bookout’s father, Jerry Bookout, served as President Pro Temp of the Arkansas Senate. On Thursday, his fellow senators voted to elect the younger Sen. Bookout to that position starting in 2011:

"What more can you ask for when your colleagues believe in you well enough to be the leader in the next session in the Senate?" Bookout, D-Jonesboro, asked after the secret-ballot election. "It is a ways off but we'll certainly be looking forward to doing a lot of good things when the time comes."

The election took place on Thursday, the final day of the 2009 regular session, as prescribed in the state constitution. Regular legislative sessions in Arkansas occur on every odd-numbered year.

Sen. Bookout, who represents the Jonesboro-based 14th senate district, will follow outgoing President Bob Johnson. In the past, Sen. Bookout has been an effective advocate for middle-class tax cuts, state funding for medical research, and other Democratic priorities in the legislature.

All of us at the DLCC congratulate Sen. Bookout on his win and wish him luck in the 2011 legislative session. We also salute Senator Johnson for his vision and effective leadership in this year’s session.