State Vote 2003

Updated 11/6/03 3:00pm MST

2003 State Legislative Election Wrap-up

On a day when Democrats lost two governor's mansions in Kentucky and Mississippi, the party found a silver lining by seizing control of the New Jersey Legislature and netting seats in the Virginia Legislature. A total of 434 legislative seats were up for grabs on the first Tuesday in November in the three of the four states holding off-year legislative elections: New Jersey, Mississippi and Virginia. (Louisiana will conduct its general election on November 15^th.) Actually, only about 65 percent of the seats in those states were contested in the general election. In both Virginia and Mississippi, a majority of candidates ran unopposed in the general election.

The biggest legislative prize up for grabs in 2003 was the New Jersey Senate that stood at a 20-20 tie prior to the election. Democrats won the chamber outright by picking up two seats that included Republican Co-President John Bennett to gain a 22-18 majority. There will likely be a recount in the race for the second seat Democrats picked up in the Senate--as of Wednesday morning, Democrat Fred Madden led incumbent Republican George Geist by a narrow 90-vote margin. Democratic success in the Garden State extended to the Assembly where they added six seats leaving them with a 47 D-33 R majority. This is the first time in a decade that Democrats have controlled New Jersey since losing the legislature in 1991.

The big picture still favors Republicans. The GOP controls 21 state legislatures; Democrats hold 17, and 11 legislatures are split between the two parties (the Nebraska Legislature is nonpartisan). With the recent gubernatorial switch in California and the wins in Kentucky and Mississippi, Republicans now hold a 29 R-21 D advantage in the governor's column.

Democrats celebrated small gains in the Virginia House of Delegates by adding four seats, but the GOP retained control of the chamber by a comfortable 61 R-37 D margin with 2 independents. Virginia Republicans added one seat to their Senate majority making it 24 R- 16 D.

In Mississippi, new Republican governor Haley Barbour will be working with a Democrat controlled legislature although his party did gain seven seats in the House. The post-election breakdown in the Mississippi House stands at 74 D- 45 R with 2 independents and one race undecided. House Speaker Tim Ford ended his 24-year legislative career by not running in 2003, so the new governor will also be working with new House leadership. In the Mississippi Senate, the Lieutenant Governor is the leader, and Republican Amy Tuck won re-election to that office easily. Although one race is undecided, it appears that the Democrats will maintain their 29 D-23 R advantage in the Senate.

With a handful of legislative races to be decided on November 15^th when Louisiana "run-off" races are held, legislative seats are still very evenly divided between the two major parties. Republicans now control about 60 more seats than the Democrats of the 7382 total legislative seats in the country. That is still only a fraction of a percentage point advantage for the GOP. For a complete state by states list of partisan control click here.

Party Control of State Legislatures: Post-Election 2003

	Pre-Election 2003	Post-Election 2003
Republican	21	21
Democrat	16	17
Split	12	11

Pre-election Partisan Composition

Post-election Partisan Composition

Ballot Measures

22 statewide ballot measures were decided in eight states on November 4, 2003. Six of these measures were citizen initiatives; the remaining 16 were referred to the ballot by legislatures. 13 of the 22 measures were approved, and 9 failed.

While the number of measures on statewide ballots is typically much lower in odd-numbered years than in even years, 22 is especially low. In 2001, there were 33 statewide measures (four of which were citizen initiatives), and in 1999 there were 44 (five of which were citizen initiatives).

Link
Ballot Measures Database

2003 Citizen Initiatives

This year's citizen initiatives focused on just three issues: gambling, property taxes, and ergonomics regulations. Here's an overview:

Gambling Issues
Half of the citizen initiatives on this year's general election ballots concerned gambling. In Colorado, voters rejected a measure to allow video lottery at greyhound racetracks (Amendment 33), while Maine voters approved a measure permitting slot machines at horse racing tracks (Question 2). Maine voters rejected a measure permitting an Indian casino (Question 3).

Property Taxes
Property taxes were another big issue for citizen initiatives this year. Colorado voters decided against an initiative adjusting the taxable portion of residential property from its current 7.96 percent to a fixed 8 percent (Amendment 32).

Maine voters were undecided on whether the state should pay 55 percent of the cost of public education, thereby shifting education costs from property tax to state resources (Question 1A). Voters were offered two versions of this proposal: Question 1A was a citizen initiative, and Question 1B was the legislature's alternative proposal. A third choice, Question 1C, was a vote against both proposals 1A and 1B. None of the three choices received a majority of votes. However, under Maine's election rules, Question 1A will appear on the ballot again in the 2004 election because it received more than 33% of the vote.

Repeal of Ergonomics Regulations
In Washington, voters approved a measure repealing the state's current ergonomics regulations and prohibiting the department of labor and state industries from adopting new standards in the absence of a new uniform federal standard (Initiative Measure 841).

2003 Legislative Referenda

Bond Issues
As usual, many of the measures referred to the ballot by legislatures this year are bond issues. This year's crop included:

State	Issue	Amount	Pass/Fail
Colorado	Referendum A: Water Bonds	$2 billion	Fail
Maine	Question 4: Environmental Bonds	$6,950,000	Pass
Maine	Question 5: Education Bonds	$19 million	Pass
Maine	Question 6: Transportation Bonds	$63,450,000	Pass
New Jersey	Question 1: Open Space, Farmland, Historic Preservation Bonds	$150 million	Pass
New Jersey	Question 3: Water Resources Bonds	$200 million	Pass

Education
Two states, Maine and Mississippi, had education-related measures on the ballot. Maine's, Question 1B, a legislative alternative to an initiative that would require the state to pay 55 percent of the costs of public education, was rejected. Mississippi voters approved a change in the way the state's Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning are appointed (Amendment 1).

Other
The rest of the legislative referenda covered a range of issues. New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment expanding the use of dedicated tax revenue to clean up hazardous wastes (Public Question 2). New York voters approved a proposal allowing localities to surpass debt limitations in order to build and reconstruct sewage facilities (Proposal 1). A second proposal exempting small city school districts from debt limitations (Proposal 2) failed to pass in New York. A measure in Ohio that would create jobs and stimulate economic growth by allowing state and local governments to issue bonds to support science and technology based research and development has failed by a narrow margin (49.05%). Pennsylvania voters approved two criminal justice measures: Amendment 1 grants a person accused of a crime the right to meet a witness against him/her face-to-face; Amendment 2 authorizes the General Assembly to enact laws regulating how children may testify in criminal proceedings. Finally, Washington voters passed HJR 4206, changing the way vacancies in county partisan offices are filled.

NCSL maintains a database of all statewide ballot measures. It includes official state summaries of all measures, and is searchable by year, category, and measure type. To enter NCSL's database of ballot measures, click here.

For more information on elections, contact Jennie Bowser or Tim Storey elections-info@ncsl.org