Current US House Map (by State Delegation)

The following map shows the current party breakdown of the United States House of Representatives from each state. States colored red have more Republican representatives in the House than Democratic representatives. States colored blue have more Democratic representatives in the House than Republican representatives. The current breakdown of state delegations is that there are 16 states have a Republican majority in their delegation, 33 states have a Democratic majority in their delegation, and 1 state (Idaho) has an even split between both parties. Some states (7 states) only have 1 representative, those states are the following:

States with only 1 House member

Alaska (Republican)
Montana (Republican)

Wyoming (Republican)

North Dakota (Democrat)

South Dakota (Democrat)

Delaware (Republican)

Vermont (Democrat)

Analysis

This map is slightly deceiving because of the 7 states that only have 1 House member each. Although even those 7 states are interesting in that North and South Dakota are both represented by a Democrat, which is notable because neither of these states have been competitive in Presidential elections (with the exception of 2008). It is also notable that Delaware is represented by a Republican, when the surrounding area is primarily represented by Democrats. Of the states that have more than 1 house member, there are not very many surprises in the map, however there are some. One of those surprises is Mississippi, which is the only state in the deep south (besides Arkansas, which has a long history of a strong Democratic party) that has a majority Democratic delegation. While MS only has 4 representatives, the fact that 3 of them are Democrats is quite an achievement. It may be striking for some that Arkansas and Tennessee are colored blue, but it is important to point out that most of the Democrats in the south are moderate Democrats, which is why they are able to represent such conservative areas.

Current U.S. Senate Map

The following map shows the party affiliation of all 100 Senators. This map is current as of July 20, 2009. States colored Blue have 2 Democratic Senators (or 2 Senators who caucus with the Democrats, in the case of Connecticut and Vermont). States colored Red have 2 Republican Senators. States colored Purple have 1 Democratic and 1 Republican Senator.

There are 59 Democratic Senators and 41 Republican Senators.

Analysis

While it has been widely noted that since Democrats had 60 seats in the Senate, and had a filibuster-proof majority. This changed after the Massachusetts special senate election in January 2010, where the Republican won. In theory, that is correct, however it is important to remember that not every member of either the Democratic party or the Republican party is always going to vote in unison with their party. For example, many of the Democratic Senators that make up that total of 60 are moderate Democrats, who represent more conservative states than other Democratic Senators. In my opinion, while it may seem as though Democrats should be able to accomplish whatever they want (due to their 59-seat majority), that is not the case. In fact, moderate Democrats (and moderate Republicans) actually hold the power in the U.S. Senate.

An interesting thing about the map is that most of the purple states are also battleground states in Presidential Elections.