The Great Sort - marching toward extremes

Rising number of states seeing one-party rule

Excerpt:

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which tracks party representation in the country’s 50 state governments, Democrats now control all three bases of power – the governorship and both houses of the state legislature – in 14 states and Republicans in 23, with only 12 states sharing power. (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is considered nonpartisan.)

Regional power bases are also emerging, with Democrats increasingly dominating state governments across New England. Conversely, after last week’s vote, the GOP for the first time since 1872 now controls the Arkansas House and Senate.

Just 20 years ago, Republicans didn’t have a majority in a single legislative house in the states of the old Confederacy – now they control all 11. The number of states with divided government is down from 31 just 16 years ago to 12 today, prompting speculation on the country’s evolving partisan geography.

... Bill Bishop, author of the book “The Big Sort” on the growing polarization of American politics, said, “There are mores states that have tipped either increasingly Republican or Democratic over time. Even in close elections you have a majority of voters who live in counties where the election wasn’t close at all. The world they see at their doorstep is different than the rest of the country.”

Comments:  A quote from the book (from Amazon site): "The lesson for politics and culture is pretty clear. It doesn't matter if you're a frat boy, a French high school student, a petty criminal, or a federal appeals court judge. Mixed company moderates; like-minded company polarizes. Heterogeneous communities restrain group excesses; homogeneous communities march toward extremes"

So basically the blue states are getting bluer and the red states redder!

Image is the old IBM 82 Sorter. Anyone from the infancy of computing has used one including me! Thankfully not many times! Back when I did mainframe programming I was pretty handy at the IBM SORT utility.

New York State: "[will] run out of cash in four and a half weeks"

Paterson: NYS Will Be Broke Before Christmas - Delivers Scary News To Legislature

Excerpt:

Governor David Paterson called an unusual joint session of the Legislature Monday to implore recalcitrant lawmakers to close the state's huge budget gap before New York runs out of money.

To some lawmakers it's nothing more than a photo op to help Paterson get re-elected. But the governor is dead serious. He said if the Legislature doesn't cut the budget now the state could run out of money by next month.

"We're going to run out of cash in four and a half weeks. We are going to run out of money. Unless we do something about it, (it will) threaten generations," Paterson said.

And so began what is turning out to be a tense tug of war between Gov. Paterson and the Legislature.

The governor says $3.2 billion in cuts must be enacted how -- or else. The cuts range from $500 million in agency spending to over $1 billion in already committed in aid to school districts and hospitals.

"I will mortgage my political career, but I will not mortgage the fate of the State of New York," Paterson said.

Comment: Yet another Democrat controlled state out of control.

Will the credit crisis impact state governments?

Fund Crisis in Florida Worrisome to States

Business
Fund Crisis in Florida Worrisome to States
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: December 5, 2007
The sudden flight from a Florida investment pool points to a broader uncertainty among officials in other states over how far the credit and mortgage crisis might spread.

Excerpt:

Many state governments pool money from towns, schools, and other state agencies into funds in an attempt to earn higher returns. Several of these pools have invested in highly rated vehicles that have since been downgraded by ratings agencies.

“These have been legitimate investments for some time, and some pension funds have made very good money investing in these kinds of vehicles,” said Keith Brainard, research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. “It would not be fair to focus solely on the losses.”

Still, the troubles in Florida have raised concerns about similar funds elsewhere in the country. Montana’s short-term investment pool, which invests money for state agencies and municipalities, has about 23 percent of its $2.25 billion in total assets invested in commercial paper issued by structured investment vehicles, which have been at the center of the recent problems in the credit market.

Comment: Note the term "structured investment vehicles" in the last sentence. See searly CFG post with definitions.