Question: Many Dems have switched to GOP over years..

[indianablue]

how many if any GOP members of congress have ever switched.

I do not mean switched to independent but actually to Dem?

I know in the 80's many 'Dems' switched to GOP.

[charlie]

1. Very few

The only one I can think of offhand is Leon Panetta, and that was back in the 70s.

[indianablue]

2. The Democratic Party is so screwed up...

It has members switch parties and those who stay most of them are DINOS.

[wyldwolf]

3. BS

Sorry.

[Yupster]

4. Didn't NY Mayor Lindsey

eventually join the Democratic Party in the 70's?

[charlie]

5. Yeah, he did

Forgot about him.

I didn't mention Wayne Morse either, because Morse went GOP --> Ind --> Dem, not a straight switch. And that was way back in the 50s.

[Frances]

6. I think the majority of Dems who switched

were really Dixiecrats like Strom Thurmond of SC & Sessions of Alabama.

Reagan was one of the most famous who switched. I think it's because when his movie career tanked, GE hired him to spin their progaganda for them and Reagan began to believe it--especially when GE gave him fat paychecks.

[LiberalFighter]

7. And that was after the Civil Rights legislation

[PDX Bara]

8. Even One is Too Many

Most of the "switchers" to GOP that I know of did so when their personal worth increased substantially and are/were the "I got mine, shut the door behind me" types. Fed at the trough until then, switched when their purses started bulging. I don't know if it's still true but I believe Susie Tompkins of the "Esprit" clothing line is one who DIDN'T switch when she attained fortune and fame.

[meow2u3]

15. What really p!$$es me off are these kind of Dem-to-puke switchers

The formerly Democratic women and minorities who benefited from affirmative action. They used AA to get their foot in the door (its intent) and then either struck it rich or became drunk with power. Now that they have power, they suddenly wanted to abolish affirmative action, like the thirsty guy who poisoned the bucket after he had his drink, just so no one else can drink.

[marcologico]

9. how about spouses

[ISUGRADIA]

10. Don Riegle, D, MICH Senator 77-95

was a House Republican until early 70s, switched to become a Democrat

[Hippo_Tron]

11. Jeffords

For all practical purposes he is now a Democrat.

[w4rma]

14. Not on labor and big buisness issues, I believe. (nt)

[KoKo]

12. In the South you have to deal with the "Dino's." We have Dems who

haven't "switched" who really are Repugs in Dem Clothes...Just look at who voted for Bankruptcy Bill and rewind back from that one and see.

It's a fact of life in some Red States. If you aren't a flaming Fundie with an "I hate Clintoon T-Shirt" you can still pass in your Dem district as a Dem with "moderates" as long as you "pretend" you are a Dem.

Repugs have been very clever finding "turncoat Dems" to run in districts they know they can't win. Then they push these DINO's into higher office. Doesn't matter though.. Once a DINO always a DINO. Believe me on this...I live in a Red State with a Dem Govenor...DINO...

[Enquiringkitty]

13. I know that Mississippi and Arkansas, like most southern state, have

traditionally been in favor and voted for Democrats but then, seemingly all at once, they switched to Republican and threw their votes to Republican candidates and have been that way for a long time. Arkansas goes back and forth depending on who is running but when Mississippi went Republican, they have stayed that way. My father said that they went Republican because they had been Democratic and got ignored....left out and over looked. Republicans came and paid attention to them, gave them government contracts, built space centers and improved the economy of the state.

He now says that it looks like, "We opened the door when the guard was asleep (the Demos) and let the thieves(the Repugs) in. All we wanted was for someone to listen to our needs and we fell for the 30 pieces of silver."

I remember, he was going to vote for Reagan and my mother wasn't...they almost got divorced over that one!

[Selatius]

23. I think it's a bullshit argument

The fact is white people were far better off in the south compared to their black neighbors. They weren't the ones who had to worry about lynchings and murders. They weren't the ones who had to go to sub-par schools and face discrimination, and they weren't the ones who had to deal with unfriendly, racist cops in places like Birmingham.

I think the Democratic Party as well as progressives in general stood up for the white man far more times than not. Who was it that fought for Social Security? Medicare? Medicaid? Who fought for the public education system? Who fought to protect our forests and lands from destruction and pollution? If the Democratic Party and progressives didn't give two shits worth a damn about this country, we would have never bothered with all these things that affect white people. We would still be living in the Guilded Age with laissez-faire economic policies and institutionalized hate in the South.

I live down here in Mississippi, and I'll tell you my opinion on the matter, and if you agree, that's fine. If not, equally fine. The reason why the South left the Democratic Party to start with is because of one issue and one issue only: Civil Rights. People in the South didn't want this, and LBJ was right when he said he just signed away the South as well as large swaths of rural (white) America for a lifetime.

Why do they remain Republican to this day? It's not because they're still angry over the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because most folks I talk to don't give a damn over something that happened 40 years ago, at least as far as I know. (There's still some Klan activity out in the boonies though) The reason they remain Republican to this day is because the Republicans crafted their campaigns on abortion, gay marriage, and other "family values" wedge issues. They don't call them "wedge issues" for nothing.

People are more worried about Adam and Steve than Osama bin Laden and their Social Security checks clearing the bank.

[Lexingtonian]

16. few or none

There was a serious amount of realignment around 1965 to 1970- mostly Southern Democrats leaving and some Goldwater Republicans loosely joining Democrats, the reason being Civil Rights.

There was a Cold War division of power of Republicans in the executive branch and in control of foreign policy, Democrats in the legislative branch and in control of domestic policy, and the judiciary some mix of neutralized and polarized and regional. In a sense that role division defined their ideology and differences rather than the other way around.

At the end of the Cold War countries everywhere seem to have taken a brief progressive binge and then a long and nasty reactionary hangover period. In 1990 there was a lot of unfinished business to deal with after fifty years of near-war conditions. We've finished up with revisiting most of the most difficult social and economic stuff, which was the politics of the Nineties. It's mostly foreign affairs and military stuff that we're rearguing now- presently it's the issues of the early and mid Seventies: oil supply shortages, China as world power, womens' roles, military withdrawal from military-political defeat overseas, Iran's mullahs, a corrupt Republican executive branch and unethical Congressional caucus, stagflation/recession, global economics, abortion rights, diminished middle class expectations, Latino immigration, Europe's interests turning eastward. At the present rate of recapitulation (roughly 1:4) and its continuing acceleration we should clear the politics of 1980 in '06 and the end of the Cold War before the '08 elections.

There's been nothing in it for older politicians to switch to Democrats while the partisan roles were rigidly partitioned (to the late 1980's) and the reactionary/anti-Modern wave began (in 1991/92). Democrats are simply unable to make large enough gains in a political environment whose engine is a reactionary revival of past resentments. When the reservoir of resentments runs dry, Democrats will inherit the country and a new breath of freedom and win the present second civil war; but until then it's suffering and minorities and minority support.

[Frances]

17. Wow

You gave me something to think about

[Awsi Dooger]

18. Yeah, Lexingtonian's posts always make me feel uninformed

They are really terrific. Just another example here.

A far as a GOP congressman switching to Democrat, there was one very recent example. Damn, my mind is such mush after two weeks of non-stop conference tournament NCAA basketball culminating with the bracket announcements today. I can't think of the name or even the state. I know he defected to us, maybe in 2001, but it was very short lived. The GOP was outraged and backed his opponent heavily in the following primary and he was defeated. A young guy with dark hair. I think from the Northeast.

[tom_paine]

22. I hope you are right, lexingtonian, but it seems to me you are making your

analysis based on National Conditions of a Nation, the Old American Republic, that simply doesn't exist anymore.

How will this change come about, when we have auditless touchscreen "voting" machines made by Busheviks.

A Press now swimming in under-the-radar propaganda and lies and without the slightest inclination, ability or moxie to change it.

Etc. etc. etc.

I say agin, I will be tremendously happy if you are correct about the pendulum swinging back.

But the pendulum cannot swing back if the clock mechanism is broken.

[SoCalDem]

19. Phil Gramm did it.. Nighthorse-Campbell did it, and a congressman

did it this year..after it was past the deadline for a different dem to replace him:grr:

[Awsi Dooger]

20. Richard Shelby did also, but the poster is asking about GOP to Dem

Not the sickeningly typical Dem to GOP.

I still can't think of the Republican congressman who came over to us a few years ago.

Many Democrats switched in wake of the '94 debacle. They wanted to remain in the majority, regardless of campaigning as a Democrat and taking DNC money throughout the primaries and general election. I'm thrilled we finally got rid of one of them in Campbell, and replaced him with a Democrat in Salazar.

[SoCalDem]

21. Nope.. He asked about Dem to GOP

Question: Many Dems have switched to GOP over years..

[Awsi Dooger]

24. You're seldom wrong, but I think this is one time

That "many Dems have switched to GOP over the years" is not the question, it is the lead-in to the question in his first line of the main text, "how many if any GOP members of congress have ever switched."

Then in the next line he tightens the paramaters to ask for Republicans who switched directly and emphatically to Democrat, not just abandoned their GOP tag for independent. That's why the replies in this thread are searching all the way back to the '50s, because Republican to Democrat has been so rare.

[Awsi Dooger]

25. The Republican who switched to Democrat recently was Michael Forbes

OK, I admit I had to look it up via Answer.com. But it was chewing at me all day.

I was one cycle off. Forbes, a congressman from New York, switched in 1999, not 2001 as I indicated last night. He was defeated in the primary during his next re-election bid, by 35 votes against a 71-year-old woman.

Here is a list of notable party switchers in United States political history, via Answer.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/party-switching


Democrat to Republican

1964 - J. Strom Thurmond, while U.S. senator from South Carolina

1983 - W. Philip Gramm, while U.S. representative from Texas (resigned before switching parties and re-won his seat in special election as a Republican)

1994 - Richard C. Shelby, while U.S. senator from Alabama

1995 - Jimmy Hayes, while U.S. representative from Louisiana

1995 - Greg Laughlin, while U.S. representative from Texas

1995 - Ben Nighthorse Campbell, while U.S. senator from Colorado

1995 - Wilbert J. "Billy" Tauzin, while U.S. representative from Louisiana

2001 - Michael Bloomberg, before running for mayor of New York City

2004 - Ralph Hall, while U.S. representative from Texas

2004 - Rodney Alexander, while U.S. representative from Louisiana (his switch just before the filing deadline prevented the Democratic party from fielding a viable candidate in the race)



Though he never formally changed his affiliation, outgoing U.S. Senator Zell B. Miller (D-Georgia), caucuses with the Senate Republicans and spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Former Democratic New York City mayor Ed Koch also announced his support for Bush.




Democrat to third party/independent

1970 - Harry F. Byrd, Jr. conservative Democratic US senator from Virginia became an independent and was reelected to the Senate against opponents from both parties.

2000 - Matt Gonzalez, to the Green Party, during his campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors

2003 - Matt Ahearn, to the Green Party, while a New Jersey state legislator





Republican to Democrat

1971 - John Lindsay, while mayor of New York City

1971 - Leon Panetta, switched parties while not in or running for public office. He later became a U.S. representative from California (1976) and White House Chief of Staff (1994).

1973 - Don Riegle, while U.S. representative from Michigan

1999 - Michael Forbes, while U.S. representative from New York





Republican to third party/independent

1912 Theodore Roosevelt former President of the United States, left the Republican Party after a failed attempt to be nominated for President again. He ran as the candidate of the newly formed Progressive Party, better known as the Bull Moose Party, and received second place, doing better than the Republican candidate but being defeated by the Democratic candidate.

1937 or 1938 Vito Marcantonio a former liberal Republican congressman from New York left the party after being defeated for reelection, and joined the American Labor Party. He was then reelected to Congress.

1952 - Wayne Morse, while U.S. senator from Oregon. He then switched from independent to Democrat in 1956.

1972 - Roger MacBride, went from Republican to Libertarian and back to Republican

1988 - Ron Paul, a former Republican congressman, ran for President as a Libertarian. He later returned to Congress as a Republican.

1990 - Walter Hickel, before his successful bid for Governor of Alaska, switched to the Alaskan Independence Party. He rejoined the Republican party in 1994.

1990 - Lowell P. Weicker, before running for governor of Connecticut

2001 - James M. Jeffords, while U.S. senator from Vermont. This move changed the balance of power in the Senate from 50-50, with Republican Vice President Richard B. Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote and thus providing a "51" majority, to 50-49-1, giving the Democrats majority control of the Senate until it was lost after the 2002 midterm elections.

[indianablue]

26. Thank You Very Much for the Info.

I thought the Dem to Repug switch was larger but I am sure your correct. I guess the 'Conservative' climate that hangs over both parties make sit feel that more Dem's have switched.