Dems Get MT House, Senate

(From the diaries. Montana was the only state in the union in which Republicans seemed to have made gains. Instead, it looks like they won't gain that seat in the House after all, and their gain in the Senate was negated by a party switcher -- kos. Update -- My mistake, Republicans gained seats in the legislatures in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Alabama.)

In a seat that will decide chamber control in the Montana House, we were down 4 votes when they went to the 4 provisional ballots. We got all of them. That brings the seat to a tie, which Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer will decide.

The House was a tie before the election. There will be a full recount at the end of this month.

You can read more here.

Also, a Republican is switching parties in the Senate. That chamber was tied after the election, so this will bring it back to Democratic control.

The Republican is switching because he doesn't feel there's room in the Republican party for moderates, which is very similar to what Oklahoma state Senator Nancy Reily said when she switched parties this summer.

The Montana House brings our net gain to 10 chambers for 2006.

This brings our advantage to about 330 seats, above the 275 that was reported earlier. We came into the election with a 21 seat advantage.

There is still a recount going in Pennsylvania that will determine control of the House. We should hear about that in the next few days.

For more information, check out www.dlcc.org.