Who'll Control the Crayons Next Year?
As more candidate filings become available from the state's bigger counties, it's apparent that Republicans are going to have a noisy beginning to the year. They've got an unusual number of primary election challengers to their legislative incumbents. Democrats, meanwhile, are making a weak play for political control in the next decade. That's not an assessment of whether their candidates can compete — it's about whether they're in position to make real gains even if they do win some elections. Redistricting comes around in 2011, and the minority party needs either a House majority or a majority of seats on an arcane legislative board to control the map-making. They don't appear to be in position to do that. Full Story