CHAPTER 11 THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM:DEFINING THE VOTERS'CHOICE 253 Moine N.H Wash. Montana N.D. Minn. Oregon Mich. Wyo lowa Nebraska Ohio nd Mo. Tenn. Okla. New Mexico 月a. Democrats control both houses FIGURE 11-2 Party Control of State Legislatures,1989 Republicans control both houses Intense party competition is not found in most states.Source: No party controls both houses Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report,November 12,1988,2893, Nonpartisan unicameral 3299-3300. than seventy years,losing it during this period to only two Democrats,Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson,each of whom was assisted by dissension within Republican ranks.Cleveland won in 1884 when the GOP denied nomination to its own incumbent,Chester A.Arthur,and turned instead to James G.Blaine ("the Man from Maine),who,it appears,had the support neither of progressive Republicans nor of his own running mate,John A.Logan. In 1912 Wilson won when the Republicans were split by the Bull Moose party candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt.Without these internal problems,the Repub- licans might have held the presidency without interruption from the Civil War to the Depression. Franklin D.Roosevelt's election in 1932 began a twenty-year period of Democratic presidencies,but since the early 1950s the two parties have divided control of the White House.In 1960,1968,and 1976,the margin of victory for either party's presidential candidate was a slender 3 percent or less.As for the legislative branch,the Democrats have dominated Congress since 1930,losing control of both House and Senate only in 1947-1948 and 1953-1954,and of the Senate in 1980-1986. On the state and local levels,intense two-party competition is not the norm. In most states,for example,both houses of the legislature are controlled by the same party(see Figure 11-2).Party dominance tends to follow regional lines. Since the Civil War,Democrats have held sway over southern politics-the South's revenge on the party of Lincoln;only in recent decades has the region begun to see more party competition.The Republican party also has its traditional strongholds,such as New England and the rural Midwest,although Democratic candidates have recently improved their showing in these areas.As