One-party control, urban-rural divides, gerrymandering, lack of competition make state legislatures less representative

"One-party control of state legislatures, compounded by hyper-partisan politics, widespread gerrymandering, an urban-rural divide and uncompetitive races," has made many of them dysfunctional, writes Michael Wines of The New York Times, or less representative of their states than they should be, writes Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post.

Wines's object example is Tennessee, where 60 of the 99 House members had no opposition in last year's general election. (The national rate is about 40 percent.) "Of the remaining House races, almost none were competitive. Not a single seat flipped from one party to the other. . . . The lack of competition means incumbent lawmakers face few consequences for their conduct. And their legislative actions are driven in large part by the fraction of partisans who determine their fates in primary elections, the only political contests where they face serious opposition."

“We’re just not in a normal political system,” Kent Syler, a political science professor and expert on state politics at Middle Tennessee State University, told Wines. “In a normal two-party system, if one party goes too far, usually the other party stops them. They put the brakes on.”

Such forces have been "intensified by the Supreme Court’s open door for gerrymandering and the geographic sorting of Democrats into urban areas and Republicans into rural ones," Wines reports. One-party control "has enabled both parties to enact legislation advancing their policy agendas . . . but it is Republican-run states, many experts say, that are taking extreme positions on limiting voting and bending or breaking other democratic norms, as Tennessee did in expelling two lawmakers last week."

Another factor is that national politics now trump state issues, said Steven Rogers, a Saint Louis University political scientist who has studied the issue. He told Wines, “It’s pretty much what a voter thinks of the president that is going to dictate how a voter casts their ballot in a state legislative election. What legislators do themselves doesn’t really matter that much anymore.”

In an opinion piece for the Post, Tumulty writes, "It should come as no surprise that, as the balance of power in state capitols is becoming more lopsided, we are seeing more extreme measures coming out of them, particularly those where Republicans have control." She quotes Wendy R. Weiser, who runs the democracy program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice: “State legislatures are not only crossing lines and abusing authority but are increasingly misaligned with the will of the voting public.”