New Republican majorities within American state governments “have no precedent in living memory,” according to an article in the latest National Review from John Locke Foundation President John Hood.

“On Election Day, the GOP netted half a dozen new governorships and nearly 700 state legislative seats,” Hood writes in NR’s Nov. 29 edition, dubbed the “Special Post-Shellacking Issue.” “It was the largest swing of power in state government in nearly half a century and gave Republicans 53 percent of all state legislative seats in the country — their highest share since 1928.”

In one of 12 feature-length NR articles devoted to the election, Hood documents the swing in partisan control of state legislative chambers from a 60-36 Democratic majority to a 56-40 GOP edge. He also notes the likely impact on congressional redistricting, which will commence in 2011 based on the results of this year’s census data.

“But it would be a mistake to reduce the significance of this year’s Republican legislative victories to a line-drawing exercise,” Hood warns. “State governments matter. Governors and state legislatures make critical decisions about many issues important to conservatives — education, health care, taxes, business regulation, property rights, and abortion and family policy, just to name a few.”

The size of state government has roughly doubled in recent decades, Hood notes. “Rather than budget their revenue gains conservatively during boom years, building up rainy-day accounts and setting aside reserves to finance trillions of dollars in pre-existing pension and health care obligations, governors and state legislatures opted for the new, the shiny, and the path of least resistance.”

After documenting the potential impact of electoral changes in Tennessee and Maine, Hood describes another potential long-term national impact of Republican victories in 2010. “Today’s state legislators are often tomorrow’s candidates for governor and Congress,” he writes. “Even before the 2010 elections brought former state legislators such as Marco Rubio into national prominence, 41 sitting members of the U.S. Senate and 223 members of the U.S. House had previously served in state houses or senates.”

“Perhaps there’s a future presidential candidate about to take office as a member of a new legislative majority,” Hood adds. “Barack Obama began his road to the White House with service in Springfield.”