Jackson Free Press

Republicans are salivating over the prospect of taking over the Mississippi House of Representatives even as votes from Election Day continued to be counted throughout the state today. But Democrats are holding out hope that they may retain control of the House.

Democrats currently control 69 out of 122 seats in the Mississippi House compared to 53 seats that Republicans hold. One of the parties needs 62 seats to control the House outright. If they have the same number of seats, the parties have to make a deal in order to elect a speaker of the House.

As of Wednesday, Republicans secured 58 seats to the Dems' 54 seats with 11 seats still up in the air. Of those races, Democrats lead in four of them; Republicans have the edge in five.

Republicans need to take nine seats from the Democrats to take control of the House, which would give the GOP both chambers of the Legislature, the lieutenant governorship and the governor's mansion.

On Thursday, state Sen. John Horhn, D-26, predicted at a Jackson 2000 luncheon that his party would hold somewhere between 58 and 62 seats. Meanwhile, the state Republican Party declared victory in winning majorities in both house of the Legislature.

The following races have not been called:

District 1
*Lester Carpenter (R) 60
Thomas McCarley (D) 34

District 2 -- No results are in
Nick Bain (D)
Chip Wood (R)

District 3
William Arnold (R) 52 percent
Tom Cadle (D) 48 percent

District 4
Jody Stevenson (D) 51 percent
Jimmy Benefield (R) 49 percent

District 24
Kevin Horan (D) 51 percent
*Sidney Bondurant (R) 49 percent

District 28
Tommy Taylor (R) 52 percent
David Dallas (D) 48 percent

District 43
Michael Evans (D) 51 percent
*Russ Nowell (R) 49 percent

District 45
*Bennett Malone (D) 51 percent
Jay Mathis (R) 49 percent

District 73
Brad Oberhousen (D) 51 percent
*Jim Ellington (R) 49 percent

District 83
*Greg Snowden (R) 51 percent
Gary Houston (D) 43 percent
Same Thompson (I) 6 percent

District 93
Timmy Ladner (R) 52 percent
*Dirk Dedeaux (D) 48 percent

District 111
Charles Busby (R) 50 percent
*Brandon Jones (D) 50 percent

*Incumbent

House Districts called for Democrats: 4, 5, 9, 11, 16, 21, 22, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 41, 42, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 55, 57, 63, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 76, 79, 80, 82, 85, 86, 87, 90, 91, 94, 96, 98, 103, 110, 115, 119, 122

House Districts called for Republicans: 1, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 35, 37, 39, 40, 44, 46, 52, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 74, 77, 78, 81, 84, 88, 89, 92, 95, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121

See more on the AP site.

Previous Comments

ID

165357

Comment

For what it's worth, Cottonmouth blog reporting that a GOP meeting scheduled for tomorrow to pick a new speaker has been cancelled. Meantime, the Mississippi GOP declared earlier today that it had taken the House: he Mississippi Republican Party has issued a statement declaring victory in the race for a majority in the State House and State Senate, as well as the Public Service and Transportation Commissions. “Republicans made history in Mississippi yesterday, electing majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in 140 years,” said Arnie Hederman, Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party. “While some races have yet to be called and our majority could still grow by a few seats, the outstanding ballots cannot change the fact that Republicans will hold a majority of seats in the House and will have expanded its majority in the Senate.”

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2011-11-09T18:58:34-06:00