The Former Confederacy & Modern American Politics, Part Twenty-Four

The election of 1994 proved to be an earthquake for Democrats, as Republicans won enough seats in the House of Representatives and in the Senate to take control of both houses. Democrats had controlled both houses of Congress since the 1950s! Newt Gingrich of former Confederate state, Georgia, became Speaker of the House.

The results in the former Confederate states where there were changes in party representation: U.S. Senate: In Tennessee Republicans took both seats from the hold of Democrats (one actually was a special election to fill a vacancy brought about by the retirement of the incumbent Democrat). That was the only change in the Senate, and in the House of Representatives: in Florida, Republicans gained 2 seats, making the delegation 15 Republicans and 8 Democrats; in Georgia, Republicans gained 3 seats, making the delegation 7 Republicans and 4 Democrats; in Mississippi, Republicans gained 1 seat, making that delegation 4 Democrats and 1 Republican; in North Carolina, Republicans gained 4 seats, making that delegation 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats; in South Carolina, Republicans gained 1 seat, making that delegation 4 Republicans and 2 Democrats; in Tennessee, Republicans gained 2 seats, making that delegation 5 Republicans and 4 Democrats; in Texas, Republicans gained 2 seats, making that delegation 19 Democrats and 11 Republicans; in Virginia, Republicans gained 1 seat, making that delegation 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans. There were no changes in the delegations of other former Confederate states. In races for governors, Republicans took over the governors' mansions in Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, with the other states seeing no change in the party holding the governorship.

One additional note, Senator Richard Shelby, of former Confederate state Alabama, switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican right after the Republican election victory in November 1994, thus increasing the Republican majority in the Senate. 

WORD HISTORY:
Swerve-This word goes back to Indo European "swerbh," with the notion of "twists and turns used for wiping, brushing or sweeping something off." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "swerbanan," with essentially the same meaning. This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sweorfan," meaning, "to wipe, to rub, to scour, to file down." This then became "swerven," before the modern form. The modern meaning of "go off course, move to the side or move from side to side" seems to have come from the idea of the "wiping motion, twists and turns," of the original meaning. As you can see below, other Germanic relatives mean, "wander, roam," which has the notion of "not staying on course," and it's certainly possible that English had this additional meaning long ago too, but that it was not set down in writing. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German had "swerben," but no longer; Low German Saxon has "swarven" (wander, roam, brush off), West Frisian has "swerve" (wander, roam, stray); Dutch has "zwerven" (roam, wander, stray); Icelandic "sverfa" (file down); Swedish "svarva" (to turn).