Free Republic

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Three elected Mississippi Democrats announced Tuesday they are switching to the Republican Party, a move Republicans described as a victory for the GOP and a rebuke of Democratic Party ideology. State Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, state Rep. Bobby Shows and Simpson County Superintendent of Education Joe Welch announced the changes in their party affiliation during a news conference Tuesday at Mississippi Republican Party headquarters in Jackson. The party switches don't shift the balance of power in either house of the state Legislature, but GOP officials said it's part of continuing trend in Mississippi and beyond. At least...

Topeka — State Sen. Chris Steineger of Kansas City, Kan., on Friday left the Democratic Party to join Republicans, saying his fiscal beliefs were more in line with the GOP and that he could better serve his district by teaming up with the majority party. "Most people tell me they want me to do what is best for the community, not a political party. By joining the Republican majority in the State Capitol, I am better able to deliver value and service to the people of Wyandotte County. Our voice in Topeka is stronger by being in the majority," said...

The Democratic Party’s civil war continues to take its toll. Jim Geraghty noted that across the South, a handful of elected Democrat officials switched parties this week, and the week prior to that I noted that several others had switched, including two black Democrats in Georgia. In Texas Tuesday, two Democratic state Representatives hung up the donkey and switched teams: State Rep. Allan Ritter of southeast Texas (District 21), and state Rep. Aaron Pena of Hidalgo County (District 40) , are now Republicans, giving the Texas GOP an almost unthinkable 101-49 supermajority in the state House.

AUSTIN -- Two Democrats in the Texas House announced Tuesday they are switching to the Republican Party in move that gives the GOP a supermajority in the chamber. Rep. Aaron Pena of Edinburg appeared at a news conference with Gov. Rick Perry and House Speaker Joe Straus to proclaim his move to the GOP along with fellow Democrat Allan Ritter of Nederland in Southeast Texas. Ritter had already indicated his intentions to shift his party affiliation. The new Republican House members will give the GOP 101 seats in the lower chamber in the 2011 Legislature, a number that will allow...

The exodus of white Democrats to the GOP in southern state legislatures this year is the last chapter of a very old story about realignment, one that -- in this homogenous media age -- has finally come to the most local levels of politics. This, in Georgia, is something different -- and striking to insider because one of the switchers, Ashley Bell, is a former president of the College Democrats seen not that long ago as a Democratic rising star: Two African-American Democrats on Thursday announced that they were joining the Republican Party. Hall County Commissioner Ashley Bell and former...

Two African-American Democrats on Thursday announced that they were joining the Republican Party. Hall County Commissioner Ashley Bell and former state executive committee member Andre Walker said the Democratic Party had grown too liberal and they are finding a new home with the Republicans.

For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since. After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region — the party’s ranks in Dixie have thinned even further. In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South. That the...

Originally cobbled together by basketball teams, but dominated by football teams, the Big East faces an enigmatic problem: It has grown too large to be a sensible arrangement for a conference, yet it faces pressure to grow yet again: football interests possibly would like to add Texas Christian, Temple, or both. The solution may be similarly enigmatic: to compact itself by expanding. My proposal: Invite the sought-after football clubs, but ALSO invite a couple rivals from the Atlantic Ten. Then form four divisions, forming two mini-conferences. For basketball, there would be 18 games: Teams in the same division would play...

In a sign of things to come, perhaps the first in a wave of Democrats across the country to switch to Republican has begun. (OK maybe not the first, but you get the idea).PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A Democratic legislator from Aroostook County has announced that he has switched his affiliation to the Republican Party. Michael Willette of Presque Isle, who was elected to a second term in the Legislature on Nov. 2 as a Democrat, told the Bangor Daily News on Friday that he has labored over his decision to switch since he couldn’t convince himself to support a...

With South Carolina's victory of the first 'Deep South' black Republican to Congress since Reconstruction, one conservative thinks it's evident that the tea party is not racist. Ron Miller, a conservative author, columnist, veteran and tea party member, says Tim Scott's election to Congress is "an impressive victory." "I think it's a great testimony to Americans' ability to evaluate people by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin..." ----snip. In winning the election, Scott beat out....the son of late Senator Strom Thurmond and the son of former South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell. ----snip"...they've demonstrated their...

GULFPORT — First it was Congress and next it will be the state Legislature, Brad White, chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, said Wednesday after Tuesday’s GOP sweep in midterm U.S. House races. “We’ve been working hard on candidate recruitment for state legislative races next year,” White said. “Politics is a team sport, and what team you’re on matters. That’s my intention — to take over the Legislature.” Though Mississippi, like most of the Deep South, has become firmly a “red state” in presidential elections and Republicans now hold a majority of statewide and congressional offices, its Democratic roots still...

Republicans on Tuesday appeared to take control of the Alabama Legislature, with top Republicans claiming to have close to 60 seats in the 105-member House of Representatives and about 22 seats in the 35-member Senate. ... Auburn University at Montgomery political scientist Brad Moody said Alabama was late in joining other Southeastern states in having at least one chamber of the Legislature controlled by Republicans. "It's a big deal. The Alabama Legislature just has been one of the last to switch from being Democratic controlled to Republican controlled," Moody said.

Georgia Republicans on Tuesday finished the job they started in 2002: consolidating control of state government by sweeping every major statewide office. For the first time since Reconstruction the state is poised to have no statewide-elected Democrats. The huge night for state Republicans follows a GOP wave that swept across the country and tilted the U.S. House of Representatives into GOP control and left Democrats with a narrow margin in the U.S. Senate. With most of the votes in Georgia counted Tuesday night, the Republicans held leads in races for U.S. senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, insurance commissioner, secretary...

The Republican Party is set to defeat Democrats in the upcoming state governments in the heart of the South and will completely dominate the election this time. It is expected that the Republicans will win in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama and will win every state elected office. If the Republican manages to win these states, they would get the power to redraw the congressional districts after the 2010 census. It will allow the Republicans to raise more funds and launch aggressive campaign for the Republican candidates in the 2012 races. White conservative voters in the South are set...

As we get closer to the November election, there is endless continual speculation/polling as to the odds of the GOP taking control of one of both houses of Congress. We can make two logical assumptions. The GOP WILL make substantial gains, and the GOP caucus in both the House and the Senate will be more conservative. However, there has been next to no discussion of the possibility that one or more House Dems might cross the aisle after the November vote.

For much of the past week, the emigration of Texas and a band of Big 12 universities to the Pacific-10 Conference appeared inevitable. But a last-ditch effort by the Big 12 commissioner, Dan Beebe, to restructure the league’s television deal appears as if it may be enough to woo the Longhorns to stay in the league. A Big 12 athletic director with direct knowledge of the negotiations said that Texas was on the cusp of agreeing to the new agreement to keep a 10-team Big 12 in place. Last week, Nebraska said it would join the Big Ten and Colorado...

Sources are reporting that the Big 12 Conference cannot be saved and that The Texas Longhorns will bolt for the Pac-10. "Texas is leaving; the Big 12 is essentially dead," said Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, who broke the story. It means big changes for college football. There are, of course, several moving parts involved, but let's try to simplify things: Brown reports that Nebraska's Board of Regents has informally agreed to move from the Big 12 and join the Big Ten Conference. "[Nebraska Athletic Director] Tom Osborne has made the case for that school that it's a better fit in...

For the past week, Dave Curtis and Matt Hayes have assessed Big Ten expansion candidates. Today, they analyze the ripple effect expansion would have.The Big East?~~~snip~~~ The Big 12?~~~snip~~~ The Pac-10?~~~snip~~~ The non-BCS leagues?

JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi House member has switched from Democrat to Republican. The Clarion-Ledger reports that Rep. Scott Bounds announced his decision during a news conference Monday at Republican Party Headquarters in Jackson. Bounds noted his "conservative philosophical and policy beliefs" as the reason for his change. With Bounds, there will be 50 Republicans in the House, and the chamber will have 72 Democrats. Bounds is from Philadelphia and has been in the Legislature since 2004.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Democrats switching to the Republican party outnumbered Republicans switching to the Democratic party by about 7-to-1 as of Tuesday in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland. In 2008, the figures favored Democrats 5-to-1. In Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, about 9 times as many Democrats have switched parties.