Why winning back the House is a tough task for Democrats
January 25, 2013  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal asked his fellow
Republicans to shift their focus outside of Washington, D.C.  in
his speech Thursday night at the Republican National Committee's
winter meeting.  Doing so might cheer them up a little.  While
the party's Washington contingent is struggling mightily, the
GOP retains full control of nearly half the state governments
across the nation. And that control, combined with the just-
completed round of redistricting, has set up Republicans to hold
onto many of those state governments -- and by extension, the
U.S. House of Representatives -- for potentially the next decade
or more.   Here's why.  Because Republicans exercise full
control (both legislative chambers plus the governorship) of big
swing states and blue-leaning states like Florida, Michigan,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, they were able to
draw congressional maps that strongly favored their party. In
the 2012 presidential elec