OKLAHOMA CITY -- Newly elected Republicans, who comprise a majority in the Oklahoma House of Representatives for the first time in 84 years and only the second time in state history, have nominated Rep. Todd Hiett to be the next Speaker. 

Hiett, the House Minority Leader for the past two years, was unanimously endorsed for Speaker by the House Republicans during their traditional post-election caucus Thursday afternoon. 

The Speaker is one of two positions elected by all 101 Representatives. Hiett's election will be formalized when the 50th Legislature convenes at noon Jan. 4, 2005, for a one-day organizational meeting. The other officer chosen by the full House is the Speaker Pro Tempore; Rep. Susan Winchester, R-Chickasha, and Rep. Mark Liotta, R-Tulsa, are vying for that post.     

Hiett, a part-time auctioneer, a cattle rancher and ex-dairy farmer, was re-elected Tuesday to his sixth and final term in the Legislature. He will be the first Republican Speaker of the House since the late George B. Schwabe.
 

Schwabe, a Missouri native, was elected to two terms in the Oklahoma House from Nowata; he served as Speaker in 1921-22, during his second term. Subsequently he moved to Tulsa, where he established a law practice, became active in the state and national Republican parties, and was elected to multiple terms in the U.S. House from Oklahoma's First District. He died in April 1952, while still in Congress.
 

Republicans recorded a net gain of nine seats in the Oklahoma House in Tuesday's election, boosting their numbers from 48 to 57 while the Democrats plummeted from 53 to 44.
 

The GOP last controlled the House of Representatives during the Eighth Oklahoma Legislature, in 1921-22. In 1920, when the GOP picked up
25 seats to claim control of the Oklahoma House for the first time since statehood, Warren Harding was elected President in a landslide, the
Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, and Albert Einstein lectured on his new Theory of Relativity.
 

After only one term, though, the Republicans lost 41 House seats in the next election   and dominance in the Oklahoma House for the next eight decades.
 

The Democrats' erosion started 20 years ago, when the House had 76 Democrats and 25 Republicans. Since 1984 the Democrats have lost 32 House seats -- 21 of them just in the last six years.
 

Constitutional term limits was a critical factor in the GOP's takeover. Twenty-eight House members (18 Democrats and 10 Republicans) were forced from office this year because of 12-year term limits mandated by State Question 632, which Oklahoma voters adopted in September 1990; the clock started ticking in 1992.
 

Besides the term-limited members, four Representatives (two Republicans and two Democrats) opted to retire from the Legislature this year, three House Democrats were elected to the state Senate and one was elected to Congress. In addition, one incumbent House member, a Republican, was defeated in a bid for re-election.
 

Sixty-six House seats were up for grabs in the general election Nov. 2; Republicans won 37 of them and Democrats won 29. The other 35 House seats, 15 held by Democrats and 20 by Republicans, were either uncontested or had already been decided in earlier elections.  A "swearing in" ceremony in which all House members can receive the oath of office is scheduled for noon Nov. 16 in the House chamber at  the State Capitol. The legislators' new terms of office actually begin at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 17. 
 

The 37 new legislators will constitute the most turnover the House has experienced since 1965, when 49 new Representatives were elected in the wake of court- ordered reapportionment in 1964 under guidelines the U.S. Supreme Court issued in the landmark "Baker v. Carr" case.
 

The Oklahoma Legislature will reconvene at noon Feb. 7, 2005, to start its four-month First Regular Session and to listen to Governor Henry's annual "State of the State" address.