Thursday, November 04, 2010

Historical perspective for Utah Democrats

Utah Democrats had their best performance in a first-term Democratic presidential mid-term in sixty years.

1950 Truman – Utah Democrats lost a US Senate seat, and eight seats in the legislature (-11 House, +3 Senate)

1962 Kennedy – Utah Democrats lost two Congressional seats, and eight seats in the legislature (-6 House, -2 Senate)

1966 Johnson – Utah Democrats lost one Congressional seat, and 39 seats in the legislature (-29 House, -10 Senate)

1978 Carter – Utah Democrats lost eighteen seats in the legislature (-11 House, -7 Senate)

1994 Clinton – Utah Democrats lost one Congressional seat, and seven seats in the legislature (-6 House, -1 Senate)

2010 Obama – Utah Democrats lost six seats in the legislature (-5 House, -1 Senate)

Here is the record for first-term Republican presidential mid-terms. The result is mixed because of redistricting in 1982 and 2002. (NOTE: There was not likely redistricting in 1952 or 1962 in the modern sense which instead would have taken place in 1956 and 1964.)

1952 Eisenhower – Utah Republicans lost five seats in the legislature (-6 House, +1 Senate)

1970 Nixon – Utah Republicans lost a Congressional seat, and 23 seats in the legislature (-19 House, -4 Senate)

1982 Reagan – Utah Republicans gained three seats in the legislature (+1 House, +2 Senate), Redistricting played a factor

1990 Bush 1 – Utah Republicans lost a Congressional seat, and six seats in the legislature (-3 House, -3 Senate)

2002 Bush 2 – Utah Republicans gained seven seats in the legislature (+5 House, +2 Senate), Redistricting played a factor

2 comments:

ivan said...

nice perspective. still, i'd hate to get to a point where we only lose one seat in the legislature because it's the only seat left for us to lose. :)

Bob said...

How many seats did we have going into these elections? Does any of your data match the 20% we lost this year?

For instance, the numbers we lost in 1966 are more seats than we had in 2010.