JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - While the presidential campaign commands the public's attention, political parties and financial contributors are quietly preparing for another less glitzy yet significant set of elections a year from now - battles to determine control of dozens of state legislative chambers.
National Republican and Democratic groups have set record-high fundraising goals as they try to influence the outcome of 2016 state legislative races. Independent political committees appear likely to join the fray.
With Congress frequently paralyzed by partisanship, legislative elections are gaining attention because states are the ones pushing change. In recent years, state legislatures have been addressing gun control, infrastructure, education standards, renewable energy, marijuana and transgender rights.
The races also are critical to political parties because legislatures in most states are responsible for drawing the boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts. The party in charge can help ensure favorable districts - and thus potentially remain in power - for a decade to come.
In the 2012 elections, for example, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House received about 1.4 million more votes than their Republican opponents, yet the GOP won a 33-seat majority in that chamber, partly because GOP-dominated state legislatures drew political maps to favor their party.
While the next round of redistricting in 2021 may seem far away, it often takes several elections for parties to build a majority or chip away at one.
That's why some Democrats have described next year's state legislative elections as vital if they are to begin reversing recent Republican gains. The GOP controls 69 of the nation's 99 state legislative chambers, its most ever.
"We are definitely looking at all of this in a multicycle way," said Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple. "That's something that Democrats - not just in Missouri, but nationally - have not been particularly very good at historically."
The Democrats' attempt to roll back GOP supermajorities in the Missouri Legislature is expected to be countered by heavy Republican spending, after both parties combined to spend more than $6 million on legislative races two years ago.
Winning just a handful of seats, Temple said, can make a difference in the redistricting process and, ultimately, in enacting or blocking new laws.
Nationally, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee hopes to raise $20 million for the 2016 state legislative races, which would set a record for the group. An additional $20 million is expected to be spent by an affiliated super political action committee, Advantage 2020, which is focused on gaining Democratic state legislative majorities ahead of the next round of redistricting.
The rival Republican State Leadership Committee has its own record fundraising goal of $40 million.
The Republican and Democratic groups each are targeting more than two dozen state legislative chambers, including 19 listed as priorities by both parties.
Republicans will be trying to flip Democratic-led House chambers in Colorado, Kentucky and Washington as well as Senate chambers in Iowa, Minnesota and New Mexico. Democrats will be trying to reverse Republican control of 13 chambers, including one-seat Senate margins in such states as Colorado, Nevada and Washington.
In Illinois and Massachusetts, Republicans are hoping to cut into Democratic supermajorities that can override the vetoes of Republican governors.
The Democrats' Advantage 2020 PAC is hoping to chip away at Republican legislative majorities in a half-dozen states won at least once by President Barack Obama - Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The parties' national efforts will be supplemented by state political parties and like-minded groups.
Independent expenditures on state legislative races have been on the rise since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case, which allowed unions and corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns.
From 2010 to 2012, the total amount of independent expenditures on state legislative races shot up 75 percent to $94 million, according to data compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a Helena, Montana-based nonprofit. It is still compiling nationwide figures for the 2014 elections.
Outside interest groups already were spending big in this fall's legislative races in New Jersey and Virginia, a potential sign of things to come.
The Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, spent at least $2.2 million to help two Democratic candidates in a battle for control of the closely divided Virginia state Senate. One candidate won while the other lost. The Republican State Leadership Committee also poured more than $1 million into the Virginia Senate races.
All told, more than $43 million had been spent on Virginia state Senate races a week before the election, surpassing the high mark set four years earlier, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks campaign spending. The result was the status quo, with Republicans maintaining the same 21-19 majority they held before Tuesday's elections.
In New Jersey, outside groups spent at least $8.5 million on this year's state Assembly elections. That was nearly five times what groups spent during the state's last non-gubernatorial elections in 2011.
Most of that money came from two Democratic-leaning groups, the General Majority PAC and Garden State Forward, a political arm of the New Jersey Education Association. Democrats gained several seats in Tuesday's elections, achieving the party's largest Assembly majority in almost four decades.
Other groups already have been raising money with an eye on 2016.
"You have what will be a highly contentious presidential election cycle," said Matt Walter, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee.
So the group set a record-high fundraising goal, he said, "to make sure we cut through the clutter and make sure that these state-level races get the attention that they deserve."
States expecting fierce legislative campaigns in 2016
With the November 2016 elections just one year away, Republicans, Democrats and outside groups are preparing for expensive battles over state legislative seats.
Increasing activity by independent groups could push next year's campaign fundraising totals past those of previous election cycles. Since 2006, contributions to state legislative candidates have ranged between $900 million and $1 billion.
In some states, control of a chamber is at stake. In others, parties are seeking to gain or thwart a supermajority. Elsewhere, one party is merely looking to cut into the other's majority. Some of the states expected to attract the most legislative interest in the coming year:
Arizona:
- Republicans control both chambers but hold a relatively slim 17-13 majority in the Senate, creating an opportunity for Democrats.
California:
- Democrats are just one Senate seat and two Assembly seats away from gaining the two-thirds supermajorities needed to raise taxes, pass emergency legislation and override gubernatorial vetoes without the need for any Republican votes.
Colorado:
- Both the House and Senate are up for grabs. Republicans currently hold an 18-17 Senate majority while Democrats hold a 34-31 House advantage.
Florida:
- Republicans hold sizeable House and Senate majorities, but Democrats are hoping to pick up some seats as part of a long-range goal of gaining control of one chamber before the 2021 redistricting.
Illinois:
- Democrats currently hold a three-fifths supermajority in both chambers needed to override vetoes of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. A gain of just one House seat by Republicans would wipe that out.
Iowa:
- Republicans are targeting the Senate, where Democrats currently hold a 26-24 majority that provides them a check against a Republican House and governor. Democrats, meanwhile, are targeting the GOP's 56-43 House majority.
Kentucky:
- Republicans, who already have a sizeable Senate majority, are hoping to flip the House, where Democrats are defending a 54-46 majority.
Maine:
- Democrats, who control the House, will be looking to regain the Senate majority they lost to Republicans in 2014. The GOP currently controls the upper chamber 20-15.
Massachusetts:
- Democrats have solid supermajorities in the Legislature. But national Republicans have set a goal of chipping away at those to make it harder for Democrats to get the two-thirds majority needed to override vetoes of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.
Michigan:
- Republicans currently control both chambers and the governorship. The Democrats' best chance for gains is in the House, where the GOP has a 61-46 majority.
Minnesota:
- Both chambers are in play, although it will take decent gains to flip either one. Democrats currently hold a 39-28 Senate majority while Republicans hold a 72-62 House advantage.
Missouri:
- Democrats will be trying to chip away at Republican supermajorities in both chambers, which the GOP has used to ding Democrat Jay Nixon with the distinction as the governor with the most overridden vetoes in state history.
Montana:
- Democrats are targeting both chambers, although Republicans hold a 29-21 Senate majority and 59-41 House majority.
Nevada:
- Democrats are looking to wrest control from Republicans, who currently hold an 11-10 Senate majority and 25-17 majority in the Assembly.
New Hampshire:
- Both chambers are controlled by Republicans, but Democrats are looking for gains in a presidential election year that typically bodes well for them. The House has a history of frequent flips in party control.
New Mexico:
- Political parties will be battling over both chambers. Republicans currently hold a 37-33 House majority while Democrats have a 25-17 majority in the Senate.
New York:
- Democrats, who already hold a commanding House majority, are looking to reverse a slim Republican majority in the Senate.
North Carolina:
- Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers, but Democrats are hoping to cut into those margins as part of a long-term goal of controlling at least one chamber by the next round of redistricting.
Ohio:
- Republicans hold a roughly two-thirds majority in both chambers, but Democrats are looking to regain seats in the House, where they lost the majority in the 2010 elections.
Oregon:
- National Republicans are targeting both legislative chambers with hopes of cutting into Democratic majorities that currently stand at 18-12 in the Senate and 35-25 in the House.
Pennsylvania:
- Republicans hold majorities in both chambers but have targeted their 120-83 House advantage as a defensive priority against potential Democratic gains.
Vermont:
- With an open governor's race also on the ballot, Republicans are targeting both legislative chambers with a goal of chipping away at sizeable Democratic majorities.
Washington:
- Both chambers are in play in the closely divided Legislature. Republicans currently hold a 26-23 Senate majority, thanks partly to one Democrat who caucuses with them, while Democrats control the House 51-47.
West Virginia:
- Democrats are looking to regain the Senate after Republicans wrested control of both chambers from them following the 2014 elections. The GOP holds a slim 18-16 Senate majority but has a comfortable House advantage.
Wisconsin:
- Democrats are hoping for gains in the Senate in a state currently under full Republican control. The GOP's Senate majority stands at 19-14.
Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, and Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.