Republicans in charge

The GOP has more clout in the states than at any time since the 1920s

ON ELECTION nights, the results for state legislatures get short shrift. Americans want to know who won the presidency or which party controls Congress, not whether the Kentucky state Senate turned red. But those not paying attention to recent down-ballot results have missed something big. Republicans now dominate government at the state level (see map). Bolstered by victories in last year's mid-term elections, they hold 31 state governorships, to the Democrats' 18. (Alaska's governor, Bill Walker, is an independent, although he was a Republican until 2013.)

When a clutch of new Republican governors took office four years ago, they acted on their conservative impulses, cutting taxes, trimming welfare and restricting abortion. Scott Walker of Wisconsin became a Republican hero for taking on the public-sector unions: he made state employees chip in more for their pensions, ended the automatic deduction of union dues from their wages and barred unions from collective bargaining over issues other than pay. The tax cuts of Sam Brownback, the governor of Kansas, were so bold as to earn an unwieldy nickname: Brownbackonomics. Both Mr Walker and Mr Brownback won re-election last year, while Republicans nabbed governorships in Democratic states like Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts. But the tide of conservative legislation may be ebbing. With many states facing big fiscal challenges, Republican governors have adopted a more moderate tone when laying out their agendas for 2015.

Take Mr Walker, who has described a proposal to make Wisconsin a “right-to-work” state—ie, to ban deals that make it compulsory for workers at a private company to join a union—as a “distraction”. Faced with a $2.2 billion budget gap over the next two years, the governor has largely abandoned talk of cutting taxes. Republicans hold large majorities in both legislative chambers, but they support such fiscal prudence.

Presidential ambitions may be tempering Mr Walker's conservative zeal, but other Republican governors are following suit. In Arizona, which also faces a budget shortfall, Doug Ducey has scaled back his campaign promise to cut income taxes. Gary Herbert of Utah has told lawmakers to consider raising petrol or sales taxes to pay for highway repairs. Illinois finds itself in the deepest hole of any state, so Bruce Rauner has warned his constituents that they will all need to sacrifice.

To the newly-elected, Mr Brownback now serves as a cautionary tale. His business- and income-tax cuts, signed in 2012 and 2013, were the most ambitious of any state. He wanted to close loopholes to pay for this, but the legislature refused, leading to an enormous loss of revenue. After a hoped-for economic boom did not materialise, Standard & Poor's, a credit-rating agency, downgraded Kansas's debt, declaring its budget “structurally unbalanced”. Mr Brownback barely eked out a victory last year. In his inaugural address this month he acknowledged that the state has economic problems, but claimed “the solutions are principally cultural and moral”.

John Kasich, the governor of Ohio (who may also be gearing up for a presidential run), has been more pragmatic. Since taking office in 2011 he has balanced the state's budget while cutting taxes and red tape. He also picked a fight with public-sector unions, and lost. That spurred him to adopt a more conciliatory approach. Having won re-election by over 30 points last year, he now wants to cut income taxes even more—but he would pay for it by raising taxes on energy companies, which has incurred the wrath of some on the right.

Mr Kasich has faced fiercer criticism from conservatives for having accepted federal Obamacare dollars to expand Medicaid, the public health programme for the poor, in 2014. But he may have been ahead of the curve. Last month Bill Haslam said he hoped to make Tennessee the tenth state with a Republican governor to expand the programme. (His plan must still pass the legislature.) Five others are thinking about it. Some want to incorporate ideas like cost-sharing or job-training requirements, which would provide political cover. Drew Altman of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research outfit, predicts that eventually “most, if not all” of the remaining states will find some way to accept the extra cash and expand Medicaid.

Schoolyard brawl

A more difficult test for pragmatic governors is “Common Core”, the national education standards that have been adopted by over 40 states since 2010. Several governors (both Republicans and Democrats) have had to beat back efforts to kill the standards, which activists denounce as federal overreach or poor policy. Some governors, like Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, have withdrawn their support. States run by potential presidential candidates, such as Mr Jindal, seem most likely to backtrack. The issue is already dogging Jeb Bush, a pragmatic former governor of Florida who supports Common Core and has his eyes set on the White House.

With just seven states under complete Democratic control, it is easy to forget about the party's governors. But most have also set aside ideology to pursue practical agendas. In California Jerry Brown has held the line on spending, even as the state's university system clamours for cash. Instead of introducing new programmes, Mr Brown has focused on dealing with the state's long-term debts. In New York, Andrew Cuomo has vowed to tackle inequality and improve education. He has already upset teachers' unions by signalling that he wants to increase the number of charter schools and make it easier to fire bad teachers.

The states are not devoid of ideological conflict. Twenty-five are suing Barack Obama over his refusal to deport certain groups of illegal immigrants. Others are considering voter-ID requirements, drug tests for welfare recipients and further curbs on unions. A host of anti-abortion bills have been filed: Republicans are trying to build on the 231 new restrictions adopted since 2010, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice think-tank. Many legislatures are also wrestling with gay marriage; 14 states still do not allow it. But on fiscal issues, at least, tight budgets restrain the radicals of the right.