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| Home Front: Politix |
| Are Democrats exiting the sinking ship? Part 6 |
| 2009-12-23 |
| As previously noted, four veteran Democratic congressmen in districts where Republicans seemed to be launching serious challenges have announced that they are retiring rather than running for reelection. Now comes the news that Congressman Parker Griffith of the 5th district of Alabama is leaving the Democratic Party and becoming a Republican. Griffith has voted against just about every one of the Democrats' high-priority bills this year, and as a physician he has been especially critical of the Democrats' health care legislation. Apparently he has decided that his chances of reelection are better as a Republican than as a Democrat. The 5th district of Alabama covers the northern part of the state and includes fast-growing Huntsville with its NASA facilities and most of the state's Tennessee River frontage. It has never elected a Republican congressman before; one issue that long benefited Democrats here was support of the Tennessee Valley Authority. But Democrats have had some close calls. Democrat Bud Cramer, a 10-year district attorney in Huntsville's Madison County, was first elected in 1990 when 14-year incumbent Ronnie Flippo ran unsuccessfully for governor. Cramer won the general election that year by 67%-33%, but in the heavily Republican year of 1994 he beat Republican Wayne Parker by only 50.48%-49.47%. Two years later he beat Parker 56%-42% and had no trouble winning relection thereafter from 1998 to 2006. In 2008 he retired to become a Washington lobbyist, and Griffith beat Wayne Parker, once again the Republican nominee, by a 52%-48% margin, even as John McCain was carrying the district 61%-38%. The 5th district is Jacksonian country, originally secured from Creek Indians by a treaty imposed by Andrew Jackson himself after his 1813 victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Like so much Jacksonian territory, it has become more Republican in this decade: it voted 54%-44% for George W. Bush in 2000 and 60%-39% in 2004. Parker Griffith evidently had no difficulty in reading these numbers, and must have considered that his chances of holding the district against a Republican not named Wayne Parker were not good. Griffith's party switch reduces the magic number of seats Republicans need to pick up in 2010 to get a majority in the House from 41 to 40. It also raises the question of whether newly elected Democrats in similar seats--Bobby Bright in Alabama 2 and Travis Childers in Mississippi 1--will choose to switch parties. Both could probably win reelection more easily as Republicans than Democrats. I don't expect a switch from Mississippi 4's Gene Taylor, a temperamental maverick who has proved many times that he can win reelection in Republican territory. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 We should cut congressmen's pension packages. Unfair ya say, turnabout is fair play, I say. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-12-23 11:00 |
| #1 If they retire now they do so on the current benefits package. If they wait those might get cut. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-12-23 10:46 |