Let's Rename it the Mississippi Diet

As a result of the runoff elections of Saturday, November 17, the new Louisiana House of Representatives will consist of 53 Democrats, 50 Republicans, and two independents. According to Richard Winger at Ballot Access News, this is the largest number of Republicans in the Louisiana House since the 1870s. Note that Louisiana has a total of 105 House members and 39 senators.

Mississippi, with a smaller population, has 122 representatives and 52 senators.

All of these states have larger populations than Mississippi:

California (about 12 times our population): 80 assembly members and 40 senators
Tennessee: 99 representatives and 33 senators
Texas: 150 representatives and 31 senators
Alabama: 105 representatives and 35 senators
Florida: 120 representatives and 40 senators
South Carolina: 124 representatives and 46 senators
North Carolina: 120 representatives and 50 senators
Virginia: 100 delegates and 40 senators
Georgia: 180 representatives and 56 senators
Kentucky: 100 representatives and 38 senators
Missouri: 163 representatives and 34 senators
Oklahoma: 101 representatives and 48 senators
Ohio: 99 representatives and 33 senators
Illinois: 118 representatives and 59 senators
Indiana: 100 representatives and 50 senators
Iowa (about the same population as Mississippi): 100 representatives and 50 senators
Michigan: 110 representatives and 38 senators

These states have less population than Mississippi:

Arkansas: 100 representatives and 35 senators
Nebraska (the only unicameral legislature): 49 members. Also, there are no party primaries in legislative elections here. In each district, all the candidates run in the same election.

We keep hearing about Mississippi's problem with obesity. It appears that our legislature also needs to reduce. We could rename it the Mississippi Diet, as some legislative bodies are already called.

Note: In 1993, Lt. Gov. Eddie Briggs sponsored a ballot initiative to reduce the Mississippi legislature to a maximum of 60 representatives and 30 senators. Since the initiative did not get the required number of signatures within a year's time, it did not qualify for the ballot.