by NCSL Staff
Two House speakers and two Senate leaders suffered surprise losses in their re-election bids last night. They are Delaware Speaker Terry Spence (R), Utah Speaker of the House Greg Curtis (R), Iowa Senate President Pro Tem Jeff Danielson (D) and Rhode Island Senate President Joseph Montalbano (D).
NCSL identified a total of 258 leaders out of 330 who were up for re-election last night. Of the 258 leaders, 40 (or about 15 percent) were forced out of their leadership positions due to term limits. Of the leaders running for re-election, 69 (or 27 percent) ran unopposed.
More leadership positions will change early next year, when legislative chambers convene and elect new leaders. At the time of this posting, nine chambers have switched political parties.
I'm not sure I would call Speaker Curtis's loss in Utah a surprise. He defeated the same challenger two years ago by only 20 votes, and polls in the past few weeks showed a dead heat.
Posted by: Adam | November 05, 2008 at 10:28 AM