I was watching the Journalist Roundtable on Horizon a couple weeks ago and heard the strangest discussion. The reporters were talking about Republicans having a "six-seat edge" in the house. I assumed that I simply hear it wrong. And then I saw this quote in a Mary Jo Pitzl story.
Republicans hold a six-seat edge in the 60-member House of Representatives and a four-seat advantage in the 30-member Senate.
Actually, the House has 60 members so a majority is 31, and it ties at 30. The Republicans currently have 33 seats. That's clearly a THREE seat edge. It's unbelievable that the reporters have made the bonehead mistake of subtracting 27 from 33 and concluding that the edge is six seats.
Obviously every seat that the Democrats gain also counts as a Republican loss. So if the Democrats want to deny the Republicans a majority, how many seats would they target? THREE.
Just admit it, Greg, we have a lousy education system in this state...
Posted by: ron | October 29, 2008 at 08:12 PM
One of the reasons that reporters went into journalism in school was because they were told that there would be no math (or simple arithmetic.)
Posted by: Scott | October 29, 2008 at 09:50 PM
Not to worry. The Democrats know they need to pick up at least FOUR seats to take control. We'll see how that works out.
Posted by: SonoranSam | October 30, 2008 at 10:46 AM
I heard they're dumping $200,000 into the Dist. 30 race. We'll see how that works out.
Posted by: Stewie | October 30, 2008 at 03:26 PM
Sorry, Greg, but I've got to disagree with you here. Thirty-three Republicans and 27 Democrats is a six-seat edge. Why? Well, for one, you can't just assume that a seat will be held by either a Democrat or Republican. It's conceivable that a few seats could be held by Independents, Libertarians or Greens. So you do the math: 33 - 27 = 6. We also generally note that the Dems need to flip 4 Republican seats to claim control of the chamber.
Thanks, MATT
Posted by: Matthew Benson | October 30, 2008 at 03:31 PM