Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 April 2011
An examination of the results of the recent midterm elections indicates that the new House of Representatives will probably be the most conservative and ideologically polarized House since the end of World War II. Republicans will hold 242 seats after a net gain of 63 seats, constituting the largest Republican majority in the House of Representatives since the 80th Congress (1947–49), which also had 242 Republican members.
1 I multiplied the original scores by 10 and recoded them into five categories—very liberal (−9 to −5), liberal (−4 to −3), moderate (−2 to 3), conservative (4 to 5), and very conservative (6 to 12)—to make it easier to present the findings.