One-Party Control of 37 States Leaves Politicians To Rein In Their Own Allies
And the crazy runs deep in both major parties
In November, Democrats won the Colorado House away from Republicans and held their majority in the Senate. In doing so, they achieved every state party's aim: to hold the governorship and both houses of the legislature simultaneously. But for governors, especially ones with moderate inclinations, one-party control can come with headaches and hard choices.
When legislative power is divided, as it was the last two years in Colorado, any bill that makes it to the governor has to be the product of a bipartisan compromise. In contrast, when their own party rules the legislature, governors sometimes have to pick between disappointing their allies and diminishing their reputations as conciliators — all because legislators of their own party send controversial bills to their desks.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?