From Time Magazine:

Republican gains in last November’s Congressional elections were minor compared to the rout the party engineered in statehouses around the U.S. The GOP won a net gain of nearly 700 state-legislature seats on Nov. 2, wresting away control of 19 chambers. It was the biggest landslide in decades, dwarfing the “Republican revolution” of 1994. “As we enter a time with huge policy and political implications,” Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee, wrote in a congratulatory note Nov. 3, “new Republican officeholders will be given an opportunity to demonstrate common-sense conservative leadership and implement solutions that promise real results and positive change.”

?Since then, however the party has marshaled its manpower in state capitals to advance a conservative agenda that goes far beyond its stated goal of creating jobs. The battle over public-sector unions in Wisconsin was the first in a nationwide war over local government wages, pay and bargaining rights, with fronts in more than 20 states, including Indiana and Michigan. A number of other states have pushed to limit abortions. Thirty states have considered omnibus bills cracking down on illegal immigration, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

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