Free Republic

GRENADA, Miss. (AP) - State Rep. Sidney Bondurant of Grenada has switched to the Republican Party. He was elected in 2003 and 2007 as a conservative Democrat in House District 24 in Grenada, Calhoun and Yalobusha counties. Bondurant, 61, is a physician. He said he decided to change parties after talking with his family and friends. He said Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and others encouraged him to make the leap. This past January, Bondurant supported conservative Democrat Jeff Smith of Columbus as Smith tried unsuccessfully to unseat populist Democrat Billy McCoy as speaker of the 122-member House.

Democratic state Senator Tom Butler will announce that he is changing parties and run for the state’s 5th Congressional District seat as a Republican, according to two sources close to the situation. Sen. Butler of Madison is one of the “dissident Democrats” who caucuses with Senate Republicans in a minority coalition. Many believed that Butler’s differences with Senate Democrats were more personal than political. State Sen. E. B. McClain (D - Midfield) once described Butler’s relationship with the party as wounded. (Another Senate insider described it to the Parlor in much the same way. See also here.) Democrats had hoped...

JACKSON (AP) — Sen. Nolan Mettetal, whose win in the Democratic Primary was disputed last year, said Wednesday he's leaving the party to become a Republican. "Switching is not the proper terminology. I'm just joining a party. The (Democratic) Party abandoned me," said Mettetal of Sardis, who has served in the Senate since 1996. Before Mettetal's switch, there were 28 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the Mississippi Senate. The balance is now 27-25. Mettetal said Wednesday that he felt the Democratic Party didn't support him in last year's election. He represents District 10, which covers Panola and Tate counties. Mettetal...

Elba's Jimmy Holley expected to announce decision Jan. 10 MONTGOMERY - A veteran Democratic senator will switch to the Republican Party, but his move won't affect the Democrats' stranglehold on the Alabama Senate. Sen. Jimmy Holley of Elba is expected to announce his decision at a news conference in his hometown on Jan. 10. Neither Holley nor Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, who is chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, would officially confirm Holley's switch Wednesday. But Hubbard called it "the worst-kept secret in the state." Holley, 63, who has served in the Alabama Legislature for 30 years, joined the GOP...

Louisiana state Sen. Robert Adley of Bossier Parish has switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Adley's move comes a month before the state's new Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, takes office. Adley called himself a conservative reformer with the same philosophy as Jindal. In discussing the party switch, the longtime Democrat Adley said he wants to be as effective as possible in dealing with the new governor. "I have worked with a number of reform governors and spent years trying to get reform in Louisiana," Adley said during his announcement at the Bossier City Municipal Complex. "We've gotten close;...

This essay is a response to a fascinating article by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira entitled "Back to the Future: The Re-emergence of the Emerging Democratic Majority." Judis and Teixeira argue that the 2006 election signals a realignment that favors the Democratic Party. I think their theory is underdetermined, and in this essay I shall offer my justification for that position. First, let me make clear that what follows is a non-partisan critique. I am not going to try to convince you that the facts point toward the opposite of what Judis and Teixeira argue. I'm not going to...

In 1950, when I was in kindergarten in Detroit, the city had a population of (rounded off) 1,850,000. Today the latest census estimate for Detroit is 886,000, less than half as many. In 1950, the population of the U.S. was 150 million. Today the latest census estimate for the nation is 301 million, more than twice as many. People in America move around. But not just randomly. It has become a commonplace to say that population has been flowing from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt, from an industrially ailing East and Midwest to an economically vibrant West and...

Michael Barone wrote yesterday that demography is destiny. He argues: “Americans are now moving out of, not into, coastal California and South Florida, and in very large numbers they’re moving out of our largest metro areas. They’re fleeing hip Boston and San Francisco, and after eight decades of moving to Washington they’re moving out. The domestic outflow from these metro areas is 3.9 million people, 650,000 a year. High housing costs, high taxes, a distaste in some cases for the burgeoning immigrant populations–these are driving many Americans elsewhere. “The result is that these Coastal Megalopolises are increasingly a two-tiered society,...

What would a Democratic victory -- likely now but not certain in the House races, possible if all the close ones go their way in the Senate races -- mean? Would it mean that we are heading into a political realignment, to a time when Republican positions can no longer rally a majority?Not really, I think. Right now, it doesn't look like Democrats will end up with the kind of popular vote percentage in House elections won by their party in 1974 (up from 46 percent to 58 percent in two years) or Republicans in 1994 (up from 46 percent...

DAYTON — State Rep. Dixie Allen of Jefferson Twp. switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican Friday and plans to screen Saturday for an appointment to take over the Montgomery County Commission seat of recently retired Vicki Pegg. State Rep. John White of Kettering, chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party, said Allen "is the favorite and front-runner" for the county commission appointment because of her experience and "the level of respect she has earned as a legislator and community activist." Allen, a retired Wright-Patterson Air Force Base manager, has been a member of the Ohio House of Representatives...

Alachua County Republicans gained two new allies and candidates for the 2008 elections Friday at an event intended to show the growth of the county party. Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson and Ward Scott, a Sante Fe Community College professor, traded in their Democratic party registrations for Republican ones and announced their intentions to run at a "switch event" held in downtown Gainesville. "I'm a man of action and ideas," Watson told a group of a few dozen Republicans who attended the event. "I cannot continue to support a party that uses criticism and calumny as its stock in trade."...

Most Israelis oppose Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to unilaterally withdraw from most of the West Bank, a public opinion poll released Monday showed. 50 percent of Israelis oppose the premier's realignment plan, whereby Israel would pull out of the vast majority of the West Bank while maintaining the large settlement blocs, while 46% of Israelis support the proposal, the Hebrew University poll found. While 54 percent of the Israelis polled said that the outcome of the last election grants Olmert a mandate to carry out his withdrawal plan, 58% believe a referendum should be carried out over the contentious...

Kadima official: Realignment impossible As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gathers international support for his unilateral realignment plan, senior Kadima official says Israel will earn international backing for negotiated settlement Attila Somfalvi Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to travel the world in an attempt to sell his realignment plan to western leaders and convince them of its necessity, but in his political fortress, Kadima, optimistic, or maybe critical, opinions are being voiced. Senior Kadima ministers told Ynet over the last couple of weeks that a unilateral realignment plan is impossible. The remarks were made by some of the most senior government...

Olmert: Realignment in one step In exclusive interview, prime minister clarifies that contrary to reports, he doesn’t want West Bank withdrawal in stages because that would ‘traumatize public.’ Olmert stresses: Nothing will stop me, I hope at end of my term reality here will be completely different Ynet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he wanted to carry out West Bank withdrawal in one single step, which he believes will be less traumatic for the Israeli public. In an exclusive Shavuot interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Olmert said: “I want to clarify that I am opposed to dividing the realignment into stages....

Official: Realignment methods unlike Gaza Disengagement architect predicts realignment will be very different - with no military operation. Evacuation-compensation law will lead to gradual desertion, 'until the supermarket will find it worthless to operate' Ahiya Raved The second disengagement, or the realignment as it has been recently dubbed, "will not be a military operation but rather a choice by the citizens to move out," predicts Brig. General (Retired) Eival Giladi, the architect and coordinator of the Gaza Strip disengagement. Speaking at the national security research center in Haifa University, Giladi said that a new evacuation-compensation law expected to be passed...

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2006 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Fukushiro Nukaga, Japan's minister of state for defense, met at the Pentagon today to continue discussions about realigning U.S. forces in Japan, including moving 8,000 Marines from Okinawa. Today's session followed the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee meeting session May 1 at the State Department. At that meeting, informally known as the "two-plus-two" session, Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Nukaga and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Aso to discuss the two countries' alliance and ongoing efforts to update it for the 21st century. During a press...

Result is dire for party switcher BY C. DAVID KOTOK The second-ranking Douglas County election official switched himself out of a job when he changed his party registration from Democrat to Republican. The No. 1 legal requirement for the Douglas County deputy election commissioner is that the person be of "a different political party than the election commissioner." Dennis Womack, the Democratic deputy, changed his party affiliation to Republican on April 18 without telling his Republican boss, Election Commissioner Dave Phipps, or Democratic Party officials. "Dumb luck" brought Womack's action to Phipps' attention Tuesday, Phipps said. Phipps said Womack's switch...

From Midwest Conservative: When ECUSA apostatizes again this June, I don’t think the Network needs to make a formal break right then and there. Since there won’t be a final Anglican settlement until 2008 anyway, a precipitous split might weaken the Network’s position, both legally and with the rest of the Communion.But while a de jure split doesn’t need to happen right away, a de facto one does. The Network needs to start acting like it is a separate entity and this measure is a good start. And with the support of conservative Anglicans around the world, orthodox Anglicans may...

Of all the midterm elections of the last century, the elections of 1910 have to rank among the highest in terms of significance. Republicans had won the previous four presidential elections beginning with William McKinley’s first victory over William Jennings Bryan in 1896. Indeed, among Democratic presidential candidates, only Grover Cleveland had won the White House in the 50 years since Abraham Lincoln was first elected. The GOP seemed solidly in control of Congress, and the Republican Speaker of the House, "Uncle Joe" Cannon, ran the House of Representatives with an iron fist. Yet all was not well in the...

Separatist fervour hits northern Ontario Residents would rather be Manitobans Mention secession in Canada, and the mind turns to Quebec, and perhaps the restive western provinces. Now add to that list the inhabitants of the northwestern part of Ontario, in the heart of the country. But rather than yearning to leave Canada, they want to leave their province and join Manitoba next door. If they get their way, Ontario would lose 60 per cent of its area, though just two per cent of its people. The ambivalent loyalty of these Ontarians has deep roots. When Canada became a confederation in...