Five Republican judges (From Alabama) switch to Democratic Party

[kpete]

Source: Birmingham News

Five Republican judges switch to Democratic Party, including four from Jefferson County
Posted by Associated Press July 17, 2009 5:05 PM

MONTGOMERY -- Five Republican judges in Alabama have switched to the Democratic Party.

The executive committee of the Alabama Democratic Party voted Friday in Montgomery to accept four Jefferson County judges and one Montgomery County judge into the party so they can run as Democrats in 2010.

The Jefferson County party switchers are Circuit Judges Dan King and Virginia Vinson and District Judges Eric Fancher and Sheldon Watkins. The party switcher from Montgomery County is Circuit Judge William Shashy.

The executive board also voted to accept former Republican state Rep. Johnny Ford of Tuskegee into the party. That will allow Ford to run for a state Senate seat next year as a Democrat.


Read more: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/07/five_republican_judges_switch.html

[ccharles000]

1. k/r

[valerief]

2. The Dem pool is dirty enough without adding more faux dems to it. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Are they really false?

[valerief]

12. They were GOP. How many leopards change their spots? nt

[katanalori]

15. I see quite a few leopards changing their spots lately....

meaning former Republicans who just CANNOT tolrate what their party has become. My hubby is one. Finally.

[valerief]

18. No, I don't mean real people. I mean pols running for office. These judges

are changing so they can run for office. They can't get elected as Repubs.

[WCGreen]

23. You really think in Alabama where Obama only won 10% of the white vote

that these judges are switching party's because they feel they have a better chance at getting re-elected?

Just asking...

[Stevepol]

40. How do you know it was only 10%? AL is all black box voting, no paper, no audits

as far as I know. Same is true of GA of course and TX is almost 100% unauditable too I think.

Unless the vote is auditable and recountable, it's impossible to have a democracy, much less know how many voted for any candidate. Siegelman won the governorship but was denied the office by a switch at the last minute of the programming of the black boxes.

AL is worse than a banana republic, probably the least democratic state in the union.

[Tanuki]

46. The 10% figure comes from exit polling

There is an interesting interactive map in the article below:
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/obama_made_inroads_with_white.html

[No Elephants]

62. Why are you citing only the white vote?

[MUAD_DIB]

42. They're hitching a ride on the Specter Express.

You're right. Do the Democrats really needs them? Would these judges be inclined to switch back to their original party if the Democrats didn't have the majority?

[rrneck]

44. The first rule of politics

is find a group of people that are headed somewhere and get out in front of them.

[geckosfeet]

37. Yes - seems like an organized effort.

[grantcart]

26. that is true for politicians but not necessarily true about judges

My brother is a conservative Republican and was a long time prosecutor before becoming a judge.


He serves in a very small rural area. The new prosecutor is lazy and not very professional.


My brother throws out a high number of cases because the prosecutor doesn't meet the standard of proof.


Many people in his area think that he is a Democrat, and during the last election almost all of his volunteers were Dems.


He lost the election for a higher court because the people thought he was a liberal, he just followed the law.


Ironically they thought he was an activist judge! lol, but he is not he is actually quite conservative politically.

[Native]

35. I beg to differ - in our area judges are elected - I personally know

several judges who have changed party affiliations (and more than once) for one reason only - to increase their chances of getting elected. They consider it SOP. I know one particular registered Republican (a bleeding heart liberal - also an atheist) that was appointed by our previous Republican governor. Is this judge a true Republican? Of course not. Will this judge change party affiliation when election time comes around? I'd bet good money on it.

[grantcart]

54. I am guessing that you are in the Eastern part of the US

In the West there is much less commitment to party identification.


Judges in most Western states run without any party identification and party has a lot less impact on municipal and non partisan elections than it has in the East.

[Odin2005]

49. I know a lot of good people who are Republicans, many of them voted for Obama.

But please, continue with your bigotry, assuming all Republicans are Rush-bot lunatics. :eyes:

[imdjh]

6. The Democratic Party is a coalition, not a regiment.

That's part of the reason we're not the GOP.

And if the Democratic Party were to rid itself of everyone you consider to the to the right of yourself, I suspect it could never elect a dog catcher.

[valerief]

13. The Democratic is soooooo centrist now. It used to be liberal. That's what I remember.

Too many centrists peeing in the pool.

[LeftishBrit]

64. Was it ever liberal in Alabama?

[dflprincess]

20. The Republican party is beoming the party of wing nuts

and, with the number of Republicans moving to the Democratic party, it's becoming the defacto GOP. Actual Democrats are going to have to find somewhere else to go.

[scubadude]

24. Add to that the fact that the Repubs have moved the entire...

country to the right, through a 40+ year media/Big business blitz that has literally made "Liberal" into a bad word.

In part they succeeded. The center now is to the right of where it used to be. Hopefully in my mind we will move it leftward once more, where it should be.

Scuba

[sutz12]

43. Totally agree...

I keep hoping. I'd like to see a true liberal some time. Far, far too few of them.

[mvd]

53. Great point

It's amazing that center-left like Obama is considered liberal by the media. "Moderate Dems" are in some cases really center-right. If we get Obama's health care plan passed plus card-check eventually, then we can say we are starting to move the "center" back to where it was.

[mikekohr]

34. The Democratic Party Is the Progressive, the Centrist and the Right of Center Party

The Republican Party has staked out and controls the lunatic fringe of the radical right. Remember the 80/20 concept: "80% of our problems are caused by 20% of the people." Republicans account for 21% of the electorate.

mike kohr

[No Elephants]

60. I fear you are correct.

[Mithreal]

21. Flame bait. nt

[SkyDaddy7]

33. What amazes me...

Everyone here on DU mocks the GOP for their hard-line views and not allowing diverse political views in their party and yet many here on DU are calling for the same thing within the our party? :shrug:

[Odin2005]

50. Black-and-White thinking.

To them it's always good if we do it even though that same thing caused the GOP to degenerate into a gang of racists and fascists.

[elocs]

41. "The Democratic Party is a coalition, not a regiment." Nicely said, I'll remember that line.

Too many have a rigid and unyielding definition of who they consider to be a real Democrat. Yes, there are those who believe that anyone to the right of them cannot possibly be a Democrat.

As a Democrat I am proud to be a part of a Democratic coalition and I don't demand that others believe exactly as I do in order for me to consider them to be a Democrat. Yes, let's leave being a regiment to the Republicans who like loyal tin soldiers obediently vote en masse.

[Odin2005]

48. So you want us to become a party of rabid ideologues like the GOP?

That is doing the GOP good. NOT!

[robinlynne]

3. WTF. We don't need any more rightwingers in the party. really. We do NOT.

join the party fine. Join to run, NOT FINE with me.

[rosesaylavee]

4. Excellent.

Surprising that judges would make a big play of changing parties and I am sure there is a real interesting back story to this ... but the tent is big enough for everyone. Come on in.

[imdjh]

7. +2

[tnlefty]

10. While I may not totally agree with the tent being enough for

everyone, the first thought that came to mind is wondering if they'd seen enough of the corruption relating to Don Seigelman that they're so disgusted that they want no part of it anymore.

[druidity33]

32. my first thoughts too. nt.

[rhett o rick]

57. It is terrible. They are switching parties not ideologies. They will squeeze out legitimate Democrat

s. This is the worst thing that can happen. I do not want them under my tent.

[Wednesdays]

8. K&R

:kick:

[waiting for hope]

9. Pulling a Specter!

Holding that finger in the wind and felt which way it was blowing .... asshats.

[scubadude]

25. Yeah, I can see the next big meme!

Pulling a Specter! LOL

Scuba

[LiberalLovinLug]

52. Pulling a Specter indeed

They will still rule as ignorant rightwing bigots. They will still hold their same views on women's rights, gay marriage, and capital punishment. Its just that they will claim to be ONE OF US while they do it.

great. I can't wait to see how even more extreme the opposing Republican contenders will be.

Your choice. Dumb or Dumber.

[Laelth]

11. Most Southern cities are what we call "one horse" towns.

That means there's just one ruling clique of elites, and they stick together like glue. When it's socially preferable to call yourself a Democrat, that's what you do. When it's socially acceptable to call yourself a Republican, you do that instead. But they're all cut from the same cloth, and they all support their rich friends. They're inherently conservative, no matter what they call themselves.

Look at how many Southern politicians have changed party affiliation (Jesse Helms, Phil Gramm, Zell Miller ... and these are just a few that leap to mind). They're all servants of the elite clique that put them into office, and they always will be. It makes no difference what they call themselves.

All this tells me is that it's easier to get elected in Jefferson County (Birmingham) as a Democrat. So, the politicians switched parties. Don't believe for a second that their ideals or investments have changed.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Dramarama]

14. Its been a generation

right LBJ? :)

[Boddingham]

16. Judges with political party affiliations are like . . .

Celebrities endorsing corporate products they know nothing about.

This sucks.

[Lasher]

29. They might as well be up front about it.

Look at the SCOTUS.

[Amos Moses]

17. Of course now they will be referred to as "activist judges".

:evilgrin:

[AlphaCentauri]

19. are they ready to embrace the moral values of the left?

or is just a commodity to get re elected

[glinda]

22. I think that is their line of attack. To join the Dems but not be Dems. Everyone hates

the Republicans right now so why not say you are a Democrat but not be one. Besides, that gives more control to mess stuff up. I am sick of it!

[DFW]

27. I know nothing about four of them,

but Shashy has been a constant advocate of relief for inhuman overcrowding in Alabama
prisons, even fining the state for inhumane treatment of them. As that is likely to be
a risky stance in Alabama, I wonder if Shashy was not a Democrat all along who had to
wear Republican clothing for a while for political survival? And maybe not only Shashy?
For years, Alabama has been close to the one-party state that DeLay and Rove sought, to
the point where Rove negated Siegelman's re-election and had him tossed into solitary.

Maybe, just maybe, our tent in the south was bigger than we thought all along, and only
now are some people feeling secure enough to "come out."

[Hulk]

28. Geee...the aren't going to take the other route..."I'm a libetarian"

Seems like the repuke party is losing it's sheep by just about any means possible; even if it means going over to "the dark side".

This really has no significance. The southern democrats of yesterday are really the repukes of today. It's just a name...nothing more. They are still keeping their hoods and gowns pressed in the closet.

[Tanuki]

38. Somehow, I don't think State Rep. Johnny Ford of Tuskegee is "keeping his hood and gown...

...pressed in the closet." Ford, pictured below, was a Democrat for 30 years before switching to the Rethugs in 2003. He has now come to his senses, or maybe he is just an opportunist.

http://ts1.images.live.com/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=1078581668204&id=f0605161de8429ba190462bac93e1c11&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nmac.org%2fpix%2fBoard%2520Photos%2fjohnny%2520ford%2520(2).jpg



(edit for typo)

[Lasher]

30. Ha ha, another setback for the Party of Nope.

This has been a real bad coupla years to be a stupidass Republican.

[troubledamerican]

31. They must have forgot their Cheney anthrax lessons.

[geckosfeet]

36. Why? So they can trash the place? I do not trust them. There has been

so much of this shit going on lately that it seems like an organized effort to get inside and do some dirty work.

Keep the turncoats on a very short leash.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

39. their intent is sabotage

[Odin2005]

51. Prove it.

[Mari333]

45. you know what this means , right? sex toys! nt

[Odin2005]

47. All the intelligent Republicans are getting sick of the racist extremists.

Good for them.

[defendandprotect]

55. Obviously the handwriting is on the wall -- but who needs these Repugs??

[bleever]

56. Waiting to hear Larisa's, and Scott Horton's, take on this.

Interesting development.

Canary in the coal mine moment? (Pun intended.)

[Kingofalldems]

58. It's a trap!!!

[caseymoz]

59. Gives me mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I love seeing the GOP ship sinking.

On the other hand, I hate taking on its escaping rats.

[Joanne98]

61. I'm not sure this is a good idea. Do we really need more DINOS?

[No Elephants]

63. From reading the comments, it seems 19 judges went from Dem to Pub in the 90's because

the state was becoming more Pub. So, judges switching parties seems to be SOP for them.

[DeadEyeDyck]

65. I think they just want to keep a job

My uncle ran for judge though he did not get elected. He ran as a republican because the opponent was a dem. He said party didn't really matter at that level. It was just a tag.

These judges were probably dems all along and just had to wait until the tides turned.