In my column on the evening edition tonight, I noted that there has not been a realignment that began with the House. A reader points out to me that Stanford's David W. Brady, in his Critical Elections and Congressional Policy Making (1988) argues that there was indeed one -- the House elections of 1894 were the start of the realignment that was continued in the 1896 Bryan vs. McKinley contest.

Brady writes on page 63:

The election that shows the most dramatic effect is the 1894 election. That election gave the Republicans a large majority in the House as voters swung away from the Democrats (-7.6 percent) and to the Republicans (+5.5 percent). The election of 1896, normally considered the realigning election, produced at the Congressional level an increase for both Democrats and Republicans (+3.3 percent and +3.7 percent swings, respectively).

I was in the "normally considered," i.e. conventional wisdom, camp -- which, in this instance, is not correct.

So -- to correct -- Cook thinks that 2006 is shaping up to be like 1894, not 1896.