That was my intention. It's basically the New Deal Coalition 2.0
Alternate Electoral Maps II
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Thanks to @Ciclavex for his help with this.
Laboratories of Democracy, Part XIII: Pennsylvania
Virtue, Liberty and Independence
From the time of William Penn's landing in the late 17th century, Pennsylvania has stood as the keystone of the American colonies, and later of the United States. Its government was organized in a manner highly democratic for its time, with full religious liberties (provided you acknowledged the existence of one God) and a directly-elected legislature that held broad sway over the colonial governor. Its position in the middle of the country, between industrial New York and New England in the north and the agrarian states of the South, would make it a crucially important state during the Revolution and the succeeding years. It was at Philadelphia that the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, and that the 1787 convention framed the United States Constitution. It was in Philadelphia that the Bank and Mint of the United States spurred on the economic growth of the young nation, and it was in Pennsylvania that the Army repelled the furthest advance north of Robert E. Lee's army at the Battle of Gettysburg, sealing the fate of the secessionist Confederacy. Famous Pennsylvanians such as Benjamin Franklin, Thaddeus Stevens, Andrew Mellon and Milton Hershey have all made their mark on their state and their country.
Today, Pennsylvania continues to be torn between north and south, and as such, it's a crucial swing state in federal elections - only in part because it remains the sixth most populous state in the Union. On the state level, however, matters are slightly different - Labor has been in at least partial control of the General Assembly (holding majorities in the state House, Senate or both) since 1932, although the governor's office has rotated between them and the vague coalition on the right that opposes them (most recently in the form of Arlen Specter (Republican), who governed the state from 1995 to 1999). Despite Labor's theoretical dominance, the party has often been harmed by infighting between its different regional branches, with Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Wyoming Valley and Lehigh Valley Laborites often unable to agree on legislation and sometimes even refusing to back each other's candidates for statewide office, handing elections to the right in the second round.
Opposing Labor, the GOP is traditionally dominant on the right in Pennsylvania - its "Main Street values" of fiscal responsibility and small-c conservatism on social issues resonating well with the electorate in the suburban southeast of the state, as well as the ring of suburbs around Pittsburgh, in particular - but it's never attained the same degree of dominance as its sister parties in New England and much of the Midwest. This is because rural Pennsylvania, traditionally conservative and more aligned with the Appalachian region to its south than the rest of the Northeast, has traditionally voted for the Democratic Party. The Pennsylvania Democrats tend to be to the right of the national party, and although it has been known to compromise with Labor on legislation, it nearly always supports GOP candidates for statewide office after the elimination of its own candidates (and vice versa). As in so many other places, however, the Liberty Party is experiencing a surge in support from rural conservatives, and this threatens to push the Democrats out of relevance.
The system is rounded out by the Green Party, which is one of the oldest branches of that party, having first secured election to the House in 1982 on the heels of the Three Mile Island incident, as well as the Soldiers of Christ, who hold three seats in and around Philadelphia that have been theirs since the 1960s.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly resembles most other bicameral state legislatures in that its lower house, the House of Representatives, is elected proportionally by the counties (except in counties with just one seat, where FPTP is practiced), while the state Senate is elected from single-member districts assigned to counties by an arcane population formula set out in the state constitution, which guarantees very rough equality between districts. The 2014 elections, in addition to narrowly confirming Labor nominee Robert Casey, Jr., a leader of the party right who had served as state treasurer for the previous term, as Governor, saw largely predictable legislative results. Labor failed to regain its majority in the House, but did successfully defend its state Senate majority by the narrowest of margins, all while the Democrats continued to be pushed out by Liberty, which claimed third place in the House elections for the first time, although failing to break through in the Senate to quite the same extent.
Senate
Labor: 26
Republican: 13
Democratic: 7
Liberty: 4
House
Labor: 73
Republican: 51
Liberty: 32
Democratic: 24
Green: 17
Soldiers of Christ: 3
Laboratories of Democracy
Texas
Washington
Massachussetts
New Hampshire
Georgia
Louisiana
Minnesota
South Carolina
Nebraska
Virginia
Utah
Rhode Island
Laboratories of Democracy, Part XIII: Pennsylvania
Virtue, Liberty and Independence
From the time of William Penn's landing in the late 17th century, Pennsylvania has stood as the keystone of the American colonies, and later of the United States. Its government was organized in a manner highly democratic for its time, with full religious liberties (provided you acknowledged the existence of one God) and a directly-elected legislature that held broad sway over the colonial governor. Its position in the middle of the country, between industrial New York and New England in the north and the agrarian states of the South, would make it a crucially important state during the Revolution and the succeeding years. It was at Philadelphia that the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, and that the 1787 convention framed the United States Constitution. It was in Philadelphia that the Bank and Mint of the United States spurred on the economic growth of the young nation, and it was in Pennsylvania that the Army repelled the furthest advance north of Robert E. Lee's army at the Battle of Gettysburg, sealing the fate of the secessionist Confederacy. Famous Pennsylvanians such as Benjamin Franklin, Thaddeus Stevens, Andrew Mellon and Milton Hershey have all made their mark on their state and their country.
Today, Pennsylvania continues to be torn between north and south, and as such, it's a crucial swing state in federal elections - only in part because it remains the sixth most populous state in the Union. On the state level, however, matters are slightly different - Labor has been in at least partial control of the General Assembly (holding majorities in the state House, Senate or both) since 1932, although the governor's office has rotated between them and the vague coalition on the right that opposes them (most recently in the form of Arlen Specter (Republican), who governed the state from 1995 to 1999). Despite Labor's theoretical dominance, the party has often been harmed by infighting between its different regional branches, with Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Wyoming Valley and Lehigh Valley Laborites often unable to agree on legislation and sometimes even refusing to back each other's candidates for statewide office, handing elections to the right in the second round.
Opposing Labor, the GOP is traditionally dominant on the right in Pennsylvania - its "Main Street values" of fiscal responsibility and small-c conservatism on social issues resonating well with the electorate in the suburban southeast of the state, as well as the ring of suburbs around Pittsburgh, in particular - but it's never attained the same degree of dominance as its sister parties in New England and much of the Midwest. This is because rural Pennsylvania, traditionally conservative and more aligned with the Appalachian region to its south than the rest of the Northeast, has traditionally voted for the Democratic Party. The Pennsylvania Democrats tend to be to the right of the national party, and although it has been known to compromise with Labor on legislation, it nearly always supports GOP candidates for statewide office after the elimination of its own candidates (and vice versa). As in so many other places, however, the Liberty Party is experiencing a surge in support from rural conservatives, and this threatens to push the Democrats out of relevance.
The system is rounded out by the Green Party, which is one of the oldest branches of that party, having first secured election to the House in 1982 on the heels of the Three Mile Island incident, as well as the Soldiers of Christ, who hold three seats in and around Philadelphia that have been theirs since the 1960s.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly resembles most other bicameral state legislatures in that its lower house, the House of Representatives, is elected proportionally by the counties (except in counties with just one seat, where FPTP is practiced), while the state Senate is elected from single-member districts assigned to counties by an arcane population formula set out in the state constitution, which guarantees very rough equality between districts. The 2014 elections, in addition to narrowly confirming Labor nominee Robert Casey, Jr., a leader of the party right who had served as state treasurer for the previous term, as Governor, saw largely predictable legislative results. Labor failed to regain its majority in the House, but did successfully defend its state Senate majority by the narrowest of margins, all while the Democrats continued to be pushed out by Liberty, which claimed third place in the House elections for the first time, although failing to break through in the Senate to quite the same extent.
Senate
Labor: 26
Republican: 13
Democratic: 7
Liberty: 4
House
Labor: 73
Republican: 51
Liberty: 32
Democratic: 24
Green: 17
Soldiers of Christ: 3
Laboratories of Democracy
Texas
Washington
Massachussetts
New Hampshire
Georgia
Louisiana
Minnesota
South Carolina
Nebraska
Virginia
Utah
Rhode Island
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My thinking was that the Democratic Party becomes increasingly Southern, which leads to the GOP expanding its base of support all across the country.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ARE BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!
In all seriousness, thank you so very much for continuing this series, it is what brought me here as a lurker and I just live the detail of it.
And secondly, can I request what state you do next, or give suggestions for political systems in future states?
Your enthusiasm touches me - you're certainly welcome to make suggestions for states to do, but I can't guarantee with any reliability that I'll actually follow through. That said, I do have New York State and Colorado lined up, so those should be coming out at some nebulous point in the near future.
I'm okay with anywhere as long as there is a strong Agrarian party (in your series the Populists)
Which makes no sense in the case of Hawai'i. This is just another bland Northern Republican, Southern Democratic map like all the others.
You know that the state's name is spelled "Hawaii", right? "Hawai'i" in English usually just refers to the "big island".
I didn't have any Populists, did I? I think that's @MoralisticCommunist - the only agrarian party I remember doing is the Farmers' Party in Minnesota.
When your two main tools for drawing boundaries are rivers and straight survey lines, weird shit is bound to happen at some point.
I think you'll find it's more complicated than that.
Anyway, that's not my point. That state is repeatedly made safe Republican in every map like this, without much thinking.
I'm getting confused, I meant the Farmers', anyway I hope to see more of them.
No, it's really not. The state name is officially spelled "Hawaii" in English.
Unless you're purposefully using the Hawaiian language spelling for some reason, there's no reason to write it out that way.
So you've decided to be a pedant and ignore my very real point?
I would suggest you look beyond the official spelling. And that's the last I'm going to say about this.
I like how I'm a pedant for insisting you spell the name of part of my country correctly.
And about what? The map? I agree, Hawaii would not go Republican simply because it isn't a "northern" state, especially not when the Democratic candidate does well nationally.
Look beyond it to what? That's not exactly helpful in figuring out why you insist on spelling the state's name that way despite being shown that that is not how it is actually spelled in the language used by the vast majority of Hawaiians, and it's frankly annoying.
My understanding of the situation is that Hawai'i is actually used quite a bit as a spelling in Hawaiian English, and that it's not restricted to purely Hawaiian language texts.
MoralisticCommunist
Banned
Incredible! It's great to see you revive this series that has always been one of my biggest inspirations. And you still have managed to keep things fresh with a good mix of parties on the right along with Soldiers of Christ, which I had originally assumed to only be in the South, holding seats in Philadelphia.
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