That would pinch the state's financial health, cutting its income, and would almost certainly dampen the state's appetite for providing the cities with financial assistance.
"Whether it's clinically going to be useful on its own, or perhaps in a cocktail of other agents that also dampen emotional state, only time will tell," says Todd Sacktor,a neurologist and scientist at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn.
As we explain, our federal system can mitigate the effects of partisan polarization by taking some divisive issues off the national agenda, leaving them to be solved in state jurisdictions where consensus may be more attainable — both because polarization appears to be dampened at the state level, and because political preferences are unevenly distributed geographically.
The Democratic leaders said little today about their legislative plans, however, which have been dampened by the state's revenue shortfall, expected to approach $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year in June.
The candidate's struggles inside Texas — to defend her judgment, to spur Democrats to the polls, to convince people the governor's race is not yet over — has dampened expectations the state will be turning blue anytime soon.
On Wednesday, gun advocates called the result a huge victory that they said would dampen other states' efforts to pursue gun restrictions.
The possibility of a Kerry victory in the state has dampened Democratic enthusiasm for the amendment; revealingly, Mr Salazar has belatedly joined Mr Coors in opposing it.As for the effect of the presidential race on the Senate race, both campaigns invoke the candidates at the top of the ticket to mobilise voters (many of whom have already sent in their ballot papers).
And that is the way it should be, he said, because the state has dampened the volatility of the spot market by reducing last-minute purchases.
The secular nature of the state dampens communal tensions, an important consideration in a country that, like Iraq, is a cocktail of confessions and ethnicities: 60% Sunni Arab, 18% Shia and other Muslim sects, 10% Kurdish and 12% Christian.
When prices in California rise, sellers would then want to import gasoline from out of state, dampening the price increase.
