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THE EROSION of the Democratic Party's hold on the South is one of the most important changes in postwar American politics. In 1950, only a handful of congressional districts in the region even featured Republican candidates on the ballot. Today, the GOP holds the majority of House seats below the Mason-Dixon, and in 2004 President Bush swept the South's electoral-college votes. The historic switch from blue to red over the past half century not only robbed Democrats of their assured congressional majorities, it shifted the center of Republican political power from the Northeast to the Sunbelt.

The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll shows Republican Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker leads 42% to 40% when matched against Democratic Representative Harold Ford. Corker is doing better against Ford than he did in our December survey, when he trailed 36% to 42%. Representative Ed Bryant is also in a toss-up with the Democrat, leading Ford 42% to 40%. Ford led Bryant by three percentage points in our previous poll. Representative Van Hilleary, also vying for the Republican nomination, leads Ford 43% to 37%, just squeaking past the poll's margin of sampling error of 4.5%. Hilleary too has gained slightly against...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Rep. Sheri McInvale, who became a Democrat four years before being elected to the House in 2002, is a Republican again. McInvale announced Tuesday she is switching parties - a decision that was met with cheers and applause by a large crowd of Republicans at her press conference, including Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings and Republican Party of Florida Chairman Carole Jean Jordan. "We love seeing those who find that their philosophy is attune to our philosophy," said Jennings. "We're proud of you seeing the light." Jordan gave McInvale a big hug and said, "Welcome, welcome, welcome," after...

District Judge Rose Vela's intention to run for the 13th Court of Appeals was well known in local political circles, but her intentions to run as a Republican instead of a Democrat apparently shocked many party stalwarts. One of her reasons for switching parties was to save herself from a bruising primary battle with incumbent Federico "Fred" Hinojosa that might become negative, she said Tuesday. She also said she had established roots in the Republican Party while growing up in a military family, voting for Ronald Reagan for president. The decision still took some soul searching, she said, hoping the...

APPLETON (Jan 3): Rep. Barbara Merrill Monday informed her constituents in Maine House District 44, and the leaders of the Maine House of Representatives, that she has unenrolled from the Democratic Party. As a result, the Democrats have 73 members, the Republicans 73, the independents four and the Greens one in the Maine House of Representatives. In her letter to her constituents, Merrill wrote, "I do not take this step lightly or without long consideration. I have talked directly with many of you about the concerns which have led me to this action, and I know that many support my...

RICHMOND -- For nearly 40 years, Donna Loring was a Democrat. Thursday, she became a Republican. Loring, a Richmond selectwoman and former legislative representative for the Penobscot Nation, said she's disappointed with Democratic leadership and believes Republican Sen. S. Peter Mills should be the next governor of Maine. "We need solid party leadership to get this state out of the quagmire it's in," she said after filing paperwork at the Richmond Town Office to change her affiliation. Loring spent eight years in the Legislature representing the Penobscot Nation. She ran as a Democrat for the state Senate in 2004 but...

WHY HILLARY MUST NOT WIN. WHY HILLARY CANNOT WIN. by Mia T, 12.10.05 When it comes to electing our first female president, we can do better than Hillary Clinton. We need to do better than Hillary Clinton, or the symbolism of a woman as president will be marred by electing a woman who has done almost as much to inflict mistreatment on real-life women as her misogynist husband. Candice JacksonTheir Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine   '04 ELECTION PROVIDES CLUE To better understand why this move is fatal for missus clinton, we must go back to November...

One current and one recent Florida county director for the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization have switched party designations from Democrat to Republican, showing some of the first signs that the Republican Party's efforts to reach out to blacks are working. Darryl E. Rouson, recent past president of St. Petersburg chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Derrick Wallace, Orange County chapter president, both have registered Republican in the past two months. The announcements were seen as a boon for state and national Republicans eagerly seeking allies in efforts to reach out to...

Orlando NAACP Chief Switches to GOP The head of the Orlando Florida NAACP - a long-time stalwart of the Democrat party locally and nationally - has stunned political experts by switching his allegiance to the Republican Party. "I've thought about this for two years," Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County's NAACP told the Orlando Sentinel Tuesday, just a few hours after returning from the elections office where he enrolled as a Republican. "This is not a decision I made yesterday." His decision sent shock waves through Central Florida's political establishment - Orlando is located smack in the middle of the...

BATON ROUGE, La. The state Republican Party can count three more members among its fold in the Legislature. Representatives Ernest Wooton of Belle Chasse, Dan "Blade" Morrish of Jennings and William Daniel of Baton Rouge have jumped to the G-O-P. Their switches bring the G-O-P membership in the Legislature to 55: 40 members of the 105-member House and 15 members of the 39-member Senate

For decades, Republicans have struggled to reach out to black Americans. But now in Orange County, the GOP has to reach no further than the NAACP. As of this week, Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County's NAACP, has switched parties -- to become a Republican. "I've thought about this for two years," Wallace said Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours after returning from the elections office. "This is not a decision I made yesterday." It is, however, a decision that rang out like a shot among political circles. Republican Party leader Lew Oliver described himself as "extraordinarily pleased," while Democratic...

HOPKINSVILLE - State Rep. James Carr of Hopkinsville, elected last year as a Democrat, announced Monday he was switching to the Republican Party. "I am and have always been a Christian conservative," said Carr. "Today I see too many Democratic leaders not willing to make a stand." Carr was accompanied by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield as he made the announcement. "The leadership of the Kentucky Democratic Party is out of step with many rank-and-file Kentucky Democrat voters who hold issues such as gun control, abortion and the military close to their hearts," Carr said. With...

FRANKFORT - Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield announced yesterday that they had persuaded a freshman Democratic state representative from Western Kentucky to switch parties. The registration change of Rep. James Carr, of Hopkinsville, ended a weekend of speculation about the subject of the McConnell-Whitfield press conferences in Hopkinsville and Frankfort that were announced without details late Friday. Whitfield tacitly acknowledged that the secretive nature was designed to spur interest. At the news conference in the Frankfort GOP headquarters, McConnell also maintained his silence about recent controversies surrounding the Kentucky Republican Party's leadership and Gov. Ernie...

Melvin Everson on Tuesday became the first black Republican since Reconstruction to win a contested election for the Georgia Legislature. In a squeaker of an election decided by a mere 27 votes, Everson defeated Warren Auld in a runoff for the state House District 106 seat in south Gwinnett County. Auld, a former Snellville city councilman, is white. "This is a great day for Snellville and it's a great day for me," Everson said. "It's just a prelude to what the Republican Party has to offer to African-Americans. A door has been opened and we need to seize this opportunity."...

He's been courted by the likes of Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist and legions of Tampa Bay Republican activists. Last week, Darryl Rouson, the never dull former president of the St. Petersburg NAACP, took the plunge and became a Republican. "It's our heritage, and it can be our legacy," said Rouson, invoking past Republicans including Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Frederick Douglass. "I know it's not a very popular thing among a lot of African-Americans, but I just believe we should be at every table and speak the truth." The St. Petersburg lawyer and vocal antidrug crusader had already...

Aug 26, 2005, 3:16 PM The Department of Defense took its final vote on Ft. Huachuca. It will not be one of 33 major bases closed, but it will be one of the 29 bases realigned.That means a loss of 371 jobs.The DOD is moving the communications security division from Ft. Huachuca to a base in Maryland, taking those 300-plus jobs with it.It's a tough move for families, but experts say it will have little impact on the base, considering the 12,000 other positions at Ft. Huachuca remain intact. Sierra Vista's city manger also projects little trickle-down economic impact.Mary Jacobs, Sierra Vista Assistant City Manager says, "What...

CANTON - The Van Zandt County district attorney and the Precinct 2 commissioner have announced they are switching parties from Democratic to Republican, marking the county's third and fourth party switches since June. District Attorney Leslie Poynter Dixon said the Democratic Party's press release regarding the party switch of Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Ronnie Daniell prompted her to announce her own change of heart. "I had planned to formally announce my candidacy for re-election in December 2005 during the statutory filing period," Mrs. Dixon said in a written statement. "While, personally, I feel more comfortable discussing party affiliations...

By Liz Sidoti, The Associated PressEuropean edition, Thursday, August 25, 2005 J. Scott Applewhite / AP With fate of the Navy submarine base at New London, Conn., at stake, Anthony J. Principi, center, chairman of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, leads the vote to keep the Atlantic Coast sub facility, rejecting the Department of Defense recommendation for closure, during the BRAC hearing in Arlington, Va., Wednesday. The verdict ... Stars and StripesThe nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted Wednesday to shutter major Army bases in Georgia and Michigan, and to close nearly 400 Army Reserve and National Guard...

Adam Hunter, an ambitious law student with bright eyes, an easy smile, and plenty of charisma, seems practically destined for politics. A half century ago, his grandfather helped register blacks living in rural South Carolina to vote. Hunter's father, born on a tobacco farm and taught in segregated schools, was inspired by the civil rights movement to join the Democratic Party. His parents have both headed the local Democratic committee in their New Jersey town, and Hunter himself worked as a campaign volunteer before he was old enough to vote. Hunter, 22, is a first-year law student at Howard University,...

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archives/006422.shtml#more Guest Blog: Dude, Who Stole My Party? Guest poster Tom Glennon laments the loss of his Democratic Party. There's a lot of that going around. Dude, Who Stole My Party? by Tom Glennon I have a confession to make. It should be made public now, before Dan Rather and the 60 Minutes Team shows up at my door with documents about my past that, although forged, are still accurate. I admit, now and publicly, that I was a Democrat, for more years than I should have been. I was born just after World War II ended, so I am...