New Hampshire General Court

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The General Court of New Hampshire is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The lower house is the New Hampshire House of Representatives with 400 members. The upper house is the New Hampshire Senate with 24 members. The General Court is the fourth-largest English-speaking legislative body in the world, behind the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the United States Congress, and the Parliament of India, and has one of the greatest disparities in size between chambers of a bicameral legislature.

On December 6, 2006, the General Court convened its 160th session and certified the results from the State General Election. The election gave Democrats majority control of both chambers for the first time since 1874, 14-10 in the Senate and 239-161 in the house. The General Court meets in the New Hampshire State House in Concord, downtown just off U.S. Route 3.

House of Representatives

The House of Representatives consists of 400 members coming from 103 districts across the state created from divisions of the state's counties each making up about 3,000 residents for every one legislator. If the same level of representation were present in Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives would have approximately 99,000 members according to current population estimates.

Unlike in many legislation halls, there is no central "aisle" to cross, since there are four sections with aisles between them, with the location put on the legislator's license plate (chairpersons and party leaders in Green, non-chairs in red). Party seating location is not enforced as seating is often decided on the personal preference of the legislator except in the case of the sixth section, which is the speaker's seat at the head of the hall.

Historically, the House was dominated by the Republican Party, which held at then end of the 2004-6 session a 249–151 majority. However, even with this 98-vote majority, the Republicans were often divided between the more conservative Republican House Alliance and moderates known as the Main Street Republicans. The division was approximately 141 voting with along RHA lines and 110 voting along Main Street lines if the difference is considered to be the 50% line of the RHA's 2004 scorecard. However, in the 2006 election, the Democrats swept into control of the chamber and currently hold a wide majority of seats in the House. It is as yet unclear if divisions between the RHA and Main Street Republicans will remain while in the minority.

Make-up of the House of Representatives

Affiliation		Members	Voting Share
	Democratic Party	237	59.85%
	Republican Party	158	39.9%
	Independent	1	0.25%
Total		396	100%
Government Majority		79	+19.9%

New Hampshire Senate

The New Hampshire Senate has been meeting since 1784. It consists of 24 members representing Senate districts based on population. Currently, there are 14 Democrats and 10 Republicans in the Senate.

Make-up of the Senate

Affiliation		Members
	Democratic Party	14
	Republican Party	10
Total		24
Government Majority		4

Media coverage

Trivia

When numbered seats were installed in Representatives Hall, the number thirteen was purposely omitted for triskaidekaphobia.
In 1819, the House of Representatives and Senate moved into their respective chambers in the State House. Both continue to meet in their original chambers, making each house have the oldest chamber in United States still in continuous legislative use.

References

External links

Official website

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Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 06:04:54 PST (GMT -0800)
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