New Hampshire General Court

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The General Court of New Hampshire is the bicameral state legislature 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^[1], 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 General Court meets in the New Hampshire State House in Concord.

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.

House of Representatives

The House of Representatives consists of 400 members coming from 103 districts across the state. Each member represents approximately 3,000 people. 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 isles 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 based 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 the end of the 2004-2006 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, a division of about 141 to 110 respectively. However, in the 2006 election, the Democrats swept 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.

Current make-up

The current make-up is 237 Democrats, 158 Republicans and 1 Independent.

Trivia

• When numbered seats were installed in Representatives Hall, the number thirteen was purposely omitted out of superstition.
• 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

• Wikipedia: New Hampshire General Court

1. ↑ http://www.nh.gov/nhinfo/stgovt.html

External links

• Official website

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