Posted on 08/11/2005 8:38:11 AM PDT by LdSentinal
A seven-year legislative veteran is switching parties, giving Republicans a milestone 100 seats in the House of Representatives.
State Rep. Greg Morris, a Vidalia Democrat and entrenched party insider, is set to appear before friends and supporters in his hometown today to announce his defection to the GOP.
His decision bolsters the comfort level of the new Republican leadership in the 180-member House, which heads into the 2006 General Assembly session in control of 100 seats, nine more votes than they need to pass most legislation.
His defection is significant for Democrats since Morris, 41, was part of former Democratic House Speaker Terry Coleman's inner circle until Republicans took over the House and speaker's office last year.
He also had been Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor's de facto floor leader in the House and allowed to sit in on closed-door meetings of the Senate leadership when Democrats controlled that chamber.
In an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Morris said Wednesday he had found himself increasingly at odds philosophically with his party.
"On major issues that are important to me and the people I represent, I'm out of step with the Democratic Party," said Morris, who was elected to the House in 1998 and previously served as a Democrat on the Toombs County Commission.
A half dozen other House Democrats switched to GOP last year, three after Republicans won control of the House and completed the takeover started in 2002 with the Senate and governor's office.
But Morris, who won re-election last year with 53 percent of the vote, said he wanted to wait to see how Republicans would fare when given the chance to lead.
"They ran the House in an orderly fashion, and they came through on many of the issues that were important to me and to them; pro-life, tort reform, ethics," he said. "They proved to me that they were good and the team I wanted to be on."
House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) said he believes Morris is making "a big mistake.
"Greg has been a good friend, but he must realize he is joining the group in Georgia who has been against open government, who has been against small classrooms, who has been against the HOPE scholarship and who has put 45,000 off of PeachCare [the state's insurance program for children]," Porter said. "This is not George Bush he's joining. These are not conservatives in the leadership in Georgia."
BS. Like all the Rats jumping ship, he found himself increasingly at odds with conservative Georgians. Rep. Mickey Channell, father of the PeachCare Program, is also contemplating switching parties. Channell is a liberal through-and-through, but he's unwilling to give up his power so he's blowing with the wind.
drip...drip....drip...drip....
Is this from the Onion? -pun intended-
Ahh...I was hoping it was my ex.representative Alan Powell. He is a democrat, but a good one if there are any.
That takes a set of onions.
ping
Here's a Vidalia onion who will be making the Dems cry.
Does anyone know where I can find a good list of elected officials who have switched parties from DemocRAT to Republican? I have tried google and dogpile and not come up with much.
Libs are pretty comfortable in the current Republican Party since it became liberal itself.
After that it was like a house of cards.
A Vidalia Democrat? I could cry.
Per Robert Zimmerman, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".
Looks like we're peeling them off one layer at a time.
"A Vidalia Democrat? I could cry."
But it's a bitter-sweet cry.
One of the biggest unreported stories is the number of political "defections", and ratio of GOP-to-Democrat and Democrat-to-GOP switches over the past 13 years (since the Age of Clinton).
I'm curious. When a Republican changes party affiliation to Democrat, does the press refer to him as a defector?
I couldn't agree more. The national republican party is basically mildly liberal with both hard core liberals, moderates and conservatives being about equal.
We don't have much of a choice with the democrats being taken over by the radical left tho.
Question; Do you think these liberals will become conservative when they change parties or do you think they will remain liberals in disguise and move the already left leaning Republican Party further left?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.