2 + 2 = 4

Have you ever wondered why there are two Dakotas?

I hadn’t, really, but tonight I learned (via Matt Yglesias) that the GOP made the Dakota territory into two states in 1889 because electoral conditions there would yield them, you guessed it, four senators. Here’s a fascinating story of daylight corruption and the omnibus bill that brought Montana, Washington and both Dakotas into the Union.