Seismic shift in the South.

• Author: Boulard, Gary
• Position: Includes related article

For W.G. "Bill" Bankhead, Florida's former Senate Republican leader, the massive GOP sweep of state legislatures across the South is less revolutionary than evolutionary, and distinctly reminiscent of author James Michener's description of how land was formed in his 1959 epic Hawaii.

"Land was finally born, yes," Michener wrote. "...stubbornly inch by painful inch, it grew. In fact, it was the uncertainty and agony of its growth that were significant."

"That's exactly how it happened for us Republicans here in Florida," said Bankhead, where the GOP on Election Day finally broke a painful 20-20 tie in the state Senate to emerge with a narrow two-vote margin for control at 21 to 19. They also picked up eight new seats in the state House for an overall total of 57 to the still-ruling Democrat's 63.

"The victory is big for us because it comes on top of years and years of slow progress," continued Bankhead. "And best of all I think that growth for us is going to continue for the next few election cycles."

But Bankhead may be modest; while it is undoubtedly true that the Sunshine State's GOP path to political viability has been a long and arduous one, it is equally true that its working control of the Senate and the narrow four-vote gap it still needs to win control of the House (where just four years ago the party was down by 11 seats) represents an historic divide, what the Miami Herald after the election called a "seismic power shift."

Indeed, the Republicans' advance in Florida, where they have never before in this century been in the majority in either chamber, is easily symbolic of the overall GOP firestorm that rolled through the Old Confederacy on Election Day, breaking records and precedents in its wake from North Carolina to Texas and Florida to Tennessee.

A COMPLETE REALIGNMENT

"In some ways the Republican advance in the South seems almost too grand and sweeping to take in entirely," said Charles Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia. "We may well be looking at an historic moment in time--the complete political re-alignment of the once Democratic South to the now solidly Republican South. It was that big a victory."

And the numbers support such assertions--Election Day 1994 in Dixie saw the GOP emerge overall with 669 state legislative seats, up from the 538 they held in 1992, and 1990's 474. In just four years the party has gained almost 200 new seats in state legislatures in the South.

But in some states the Republican victories were beyond seismic--they were cataclysmic, shaking to its foundation the serene world of Democratic-controlled legislatures that have governed virtually unchallenged for generations. In South Carolina, Republicans have control of the House by a 62 to 58 margin, the same chamber where in 1990 they held only some 42 seats. The good news for the GOP in the Palmetto State didn't end with the November election. In its immediate aftermath, two conservative lawmakers in the House who won re-election to their seats as Democrats announced they were switching their allegiance to the GOP, thus providing the final two votes needed for a shift in party control.

"We had talked with both of the members about coming over to our side before," said Chris Neeley, a top official with the South Carolina Republican party who helped coordinate the 1994 successful legislative races. "But we weren't sure when they might make their decision to join us. That they did it when they did was obviously a great help to us."

Both of the lawmakers--C.D. Chamblee and Harold Worley--said they were joining the GOP because it was more in line with their own political philosophy. But Neeley said he expects to see at least two additional members change from the Democratic to the Republican party in the near future, thus strengthening the GOP's control of the House. "And it wouldn't surprise me if we see this same sort of thing happening in other Southern states too," Neeley predicted.

NERVOUS DEMOCRATS

In North Carolina, the Republican blowout was even more stunning: an unprecedented and unexpected 13-seat gain in the Senate where they will now breathe down the necks of nervous Democrats who hold only a two-seat margin at 26 to 24. But in the House elections, the Republicans won a massive new 26 seats--one of the biggest state legislative party shifts in modern history--to emerge with 68 seats to the Democrats' 52.

"I hope I'm wrong about this, but it is just now...