Posted on 08/30/2004 5:11:08 PM PDT by Thanatos
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A state appeals court ruled Monday that a longtime Democratic congressman who switched to the Republican Party at the last minute may run as a GOP candidate, and overturned a lower-court decision that ordered the ballot reopened for new candidates.
Rep. Rodney Alexander filed to run for re-election as a Democrat on Aug. 4, then refiled as a Republican two days later, just before the deadline to sign up for the race.
Angry Democrats sued, and a state district judge ruled last week that the qualifying period for the election should be reopened.
But the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal overturned that ruling Monday, saying the lower-court judge overstepped his authority. The appellate judges barred new candidates from joining the race against Alexander and rejected arguments from Alexander's opponents that he should be knocked off the ballot.
The conservative congressman, who spoke to the Republican National Convention Monday, called the ruling "a great victory" and added, "All I wanted to do all along was run as a Republican." Even before his switch, he had sided with President Bush's party more often than not.
The 12-judge panel acknowledged the unprecedented nature of the case. "I'm not sure anyone in the Legislature ever contemplated such a situation," Judge James E. Kuhn said.
There was no immediate word on whether the case would be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Democrats argued that state law prevented Alexander from changing his party affiliation once he qualified as a Democrat. By filing new papers, they said, he effectively withdrew from the race.
"What Rodney Alexander did was wrong," attorney Victoria Murry told the court Monday. "He violated both the spirit and letter of the Louisiana election code."
But the appeals court expressed skepticism over that argument, and about the case itself, with one judge suggesting it had more to do with politics than the law. Another wondered why Alexander should not appear as both a Republican and a Democrat on the Nov. 2 ballot, and a third asked whether the secretary of state could not simply put him on the ballot with no party affiliation.
Alexander will now face only two underfinanced and lesser-known opponents - former state Rep. Jock Scott, a Republican who was abandoned by the party when Alexander switched, and Zelma Blakes, a homemaker who signed up as a Democrat.
Scott said he was disappointed with the ruling. "I do think it would be a great message to send to all politicians in Louisiana that we won't tolerate playing political games with the election codes," he said.
Alexander won the seat formerly held by Republican John Cooksey by less than a thousand votes in 2002. His defection means Democrats would have to gain another seat, 12 in all, to win back the House this fall.
The article calls Alexander a "long-time Democratic congressman." He has been a Democrat congressman only from Jan. 2003 to Aug. 7, 2004 -- hardly "long-time," a term that could apply instead to popular Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-WV.
Infiltrate and destroy. I'm very leary of all the demoRAT defections.
Most of the southern republicans started out as democrats. But, the Dem Party has become the communist/socialist/queer party, so the conservative and moderate+ have come over to the republican side.
I don't see fair treatment for the lesser-off and belief in Defense and Freedom first is such a bad thing.
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