2011 United States state legislative elections

Republicans made historic gains in the 2010 elections, flipping control of twenty legislative chambers across the country. Republicans made especially large gains in the South, winning control of a number of chambers for the first time since Reconstruction. Additionally, post-election party switching gave Republicans control of the Louisiana House of Representatives. Three Southern states, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia, did not hold regularly scheduled elections in 2010, but many took the 2010 results as a sign that Republicans would soon gain full control of these states as well. In February, Senator Ezell Lee, who had been voting more and more frequently with Republicans, solidified his own switch to the party by filing to run for re-election as a Republican, flipping control of the chamber to the Republicans. Redistricting The 2011 elections were the first held after the release of the results of the 2010 census; each of the four states up for election in 2011 attempted to draw new maps in accordance with the new population data. Republicans exercised full control of redistricting in Louisiana after having taken control of both chambers of the legislature in late 2010 and early 2011. As the legislature showed no signs of resolving its impasse, federal courts took up the process. The NAACP sought new maps to remedy the population disparities that had grown between districts in the preceding decade, while some Republicans sought to hold the 2011 elections under the previous maps while passing new maps and holding new elections in 2012. The judges ruled to conduct the elections under the previous decades' maps, agreeing that redistricting was not required to take place until 2012. After the 2011 elections, the newly Republican-controlled legislature passed new legislative maps, but elections were not held again until 2015. New Jersey In New Jersey, redistricting was controlled by a bipartisan commission evenly-split between Democrats and Republicans. The commission was unable to reach a compromise on the maps and deadlocked, forcing the Supreme Court of New Jersey to appoint an eleventh, nonpartisan commissioner. Commissioner Alan Rosenthal was unable to broker a compromise either, and he ultimately sided with the Democrats and voted for their proposal. Virginia In Virginia, Democrats controlled the Senate, while Republicans controlled the governorship and the General Assembly. To avoid a deadlock in the redistricting process, the leaders of both chambers reached a "gentleman's agreement" that the party in control of each chamber would draw their own maps without interfering with the others' map. Despite this, Republican governor Bob McDonnell vetoed the redistricting proposal, objecting to the Democratic-drawn Senate map. The legislature later passed a compromise bill, which McDonnell signed. Other party switching Like during the immediate aftermath of the 2010 election, a large number of Democratic state legislators, primarily from the South, switched to the Republican party. This included further switches in the Louisiana House of Representatives, which gave Republicans a true majority in the chamber, allowing them to bypass both the Democrats and the four independents in the chamber to pass legislation. Pre-election Post-election == Summary table ==

Regularly scheduled elections were held in 8 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. Nationwide, regularly scheduled elections were held for 578 of the 7,383 legislative seats. This table only covers regularly scheduled elections; additional special elections took place concurrently with these regularly scheduled elections. == Election predictions ==

Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive chambers. These predictions look at factors such as the strength of the party, the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state. The predictions assign ratings to each chambers, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that election. Most election predictors use: • "Tossup": No advantage • "Lean": Slight advantage • "Likely": Significant, but surmountable, advantage • "Safe": Near-certain chance of victory == State summaries ==

Louisiana All seats of the Louisiana State Senate and the Louisiana House of Representatives were up for election to four-year terms in single-member districts. Republicans flipped both chambers through party switching and special elections in the past year, and then retained majority control in both chambers in the 2011 elections. Mississippi All seats of the Mississippi State Senate and the Mississippi House of Representatives were up for election to four-year terms in single-member districts. Republicans won a majority in the lower house for the first time since Reconstruction. Republicans also gained a tenth seat in the House after the election when Donnie Bell announced he was switching parties as well. Democrats retained majority control in both chambers. Virginia All seats of the Senate of Virginia and the Virginia House of Delegates were up for election in single-member districts. Senators were elected to four-year terms, while delegates serve terms of two years. Republicans maintained control of the lower chamber and won control of the upper chamber because the Republican lieutenant governor broke the ties in the now-evenly split body. == Special elections ==

95 state legislative special elections were held in 2011, including the two that flipped control of the Louisiana Senate. Twelve seats changed partisan control, with Republicans netting three more seats than the Democrats. Arkansas Connecticut Massachusetts Missouri New Hampshire Wisconsin == Recall elections ==

Arizona Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce faced a recall election over his role in the crafting and passage of the highly controversial Arizona SB 1070, which was the strictest anti-illegal immigration law in the country at the time of its passage. Pearce was the first legislator in Arizona history to face a recall election, and he was defeated by fellow Republican Jerry Lewis. Wisconsin A wave of recall elections were held in Wisconsin Senate as a part of the public fallout of the passage of Act 10, a law which significantly limited public employee collective bargaining. Republican senators were targeted for their support of the bill, while Democratic senators were targeted for leaving the state to deprive the chamber of a quorum to delay the bill's passage. Democrats retained all of their Senators, while two of the six Republicans were defeated, for a net gain of two seats for the Democrats. == See also ==