Arkansas Republicans make historic sweep in election

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/07/us-usa-campaign-arkansas-legislature-idUSBRE8A60WA20121107

(Reuters) - Arkansas Republicans on Tuesday night took control of at least one chamber of the state legislature and captured all of the state's congressional seats for the first time since Reconstruction.

Republicans took the majority in the state Senate and will either have a one seat majority or be tied with Democrats in the state House of Representatives, according to election returns.

For decades, Arkansas has been a rare dot of Democratic blue amid Republican red across the legislatures of the South. Until Tuesday's elections, it was the only state in the South where both chambers of the legislature were controlled by Democrats.

It was not just the state legislature that made history. Republicans gained control of all four of the state's congressional seats after Republican Tom Cotton, an Iraq war veteran, defeated a Democrat on Tuesday to pick up a seat that had been vacated by a retiring Democrat.

Former President Bill Clinton, an Arkansas native, cut radio ads against the three Republicans running for the state legislature, all of whom lost on Tuesday night.