Texas is definitely striking. It's interesting that Republicans didn't take complete control of the legislature until the 2002 elections, but George W. Bush was clearly successful in altering the partisan character of the state.
2002 was the last time any statewide races in Texas were remotely competitive. David Dewhurst actually had to make a sincere effort to get elected Lieutenant Governor that year. Some people thought Ron Kirk was going to be the first African-American US Senator from Texas.
It's worth noting that the Republicans won the state house in 2002 even with a map that the Democrats worked very hard to try to shore themselves up with. And then you had Tom DeLay orchestrate another redrawing a year later and in 2004, every non-minority, non-urban Democrat had their career go up in flames, apart from a few in East Texas.
