by Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org Staff Writer
The effect of Democratic wins in last year’s state-level elections is starting to show as state legislatures line up their trophies and begin to shutter their doors for the season.
Democratic gains in statehouses were instrumental in paving the way this year for the country’s first “living wage” law in Maryland, civil unions for gay couples in New Hampshire, and condemnations of President Bush’s policies in Iraq.
Stateline.org has culled the accomplishments of the first 29 legislatures to wrap up their work for 2007. Besides spotting ways that citizens’ lives are being changed by the shift in political winds last year, what also stands out are ways the states are ahead of federal policy on issues from health care to immigration to global warming. Policymakers in Washington, D.C., may get more attention, but the action is in the states.
[View Stateline.org‘s schedule of state presidential primary dates]
Stateline.org will keep tabs as other state legislatures adjourn and will update its comprehensive summary of the trends and precedent-setting policies to emerge from state capitols. Also see a state-by-state summary of legislative action.
Democrats make their mark
In the first legislative session since Democrats won control of 28 governorships (up from 22) and took the upper hand in 23 statehouses (four more than last year), the party is exerting its newfound power and enacting social and energy policies that had fallen to the wayside under GOP control. For example:
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- In New Hampshire, where Democrats are in control of both the legislative and executive branches for the first time since just after the Civil War, lawmakers approved a historic civil unionbill that gives same-sex couples the same state-level rights as under traditional marriage laws.
- In Iowa, where Democrats now control both the Legislature and governor’s mansion for the first time in 42 years, lawmakers raised the minimum wage and banned discrimination based on sexual orientation — issues that prior to the elections got bottled up in a Republican-controlled House. Lawmakers also approved freshman Gov. Chet Culver’s proposal to increase cigarette taxes by a $1 a pack to pay for health programs.
- Colorado, which has a new Democratic governor with Bill Ritter and a larger Democratic majority in the Statehouse, made gay adoption legal and outlawed workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, measures previously blocked by term-limited Republican Gov. Bill Owens.
- Maryland: Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) signed into law the country’s only state “living wage” requiring $8.50 to $11.30 per hour for employees of state contractors, a measure that O’Malley’s Republican predecessor, Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr., had vetoed. In addition, Maryland passed a smoking ban, also opposed by Ehrlich, one of only two incumbent governors — both Republican — defeated last year.
- Democrats will try to add to their gains this November, but it won’t be easy. All three gubernatorial races this year — in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi — are in the South, the only region where Republicans made gains in state offices in 2006. All legislative seats in Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia also are on the ballot this year.
