does it ever bother you that you can probably name a shit ton

[AlanCranston]

of republicans who used to be democrats but very few democrats who used to be republicans.

Richard Shelby
Bob Stump
Ben "Nighthorse" Campbell
Andy Ireland
Nathan Deal
Rodney Alexander
Mike Parker
Phil Gramm
Rick Perry
Ralph Hall
Virgil Goode
Bill Archer
Strom Thurmond

the list is fucking endless. Because there are very few democrats who used to be republicans we are on the shit end of the stick!

[Poll_Blind]

1. I couldn't give less of a shit.

PB

[FarLeftFist]

2. Huh?!

Republican to Democrat:


1952 – Wayne Morse while in US senate from Oregon.
mid 1960s – Pete Stark, now U.S. Representative from California
1960s – Howard Dean, while in college
1960s – Archibald Carey, Jr, after serving as a Chicago alderman and before being elected as a circuit court judge in Cook County, Illinois
1962 – Calhoun Allen, to run for the Shreveport, Louisiana, City Council
1970s – Ralph Neas
1971 – John Lindsay, while mayor of New York City <35>
1971 – Leon Panetta, switched parties while not in or running for public office. He later became a U.S. representative from California (1976–93) and White House Chief of Staff (1994–1997).
1972 – Ogden R. Reid, while U.S. representative from New York
1973 – Joan Finney, before being elected Kansas State Treasurer, and later Governor of Kansas
1973 – Don Riegle, while U.S. representative from Michigan
1977 – Peter Peyser, after three terms in the House as a New York Republican, vacated his seat to run for nomination for the Senate in 1976. After his unsuccessful attempt, he switched to the Democratic party and regained his House seat in 1978.
1985 – John Yarmuth, now U.S. Representative from Kentucky
1991 – Mike Doyle, now U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania
1991 – Markos Moulitsas, while in the Army
1992 – Loretta Sanchez, now U.S. Representative from California
1994 – Bernard Erickson, Texas State Representative
1996 – Carolyn McCarthy, now U.S. Representative from New York, to challenge incumbent Dan Frisa (McCarthy was still a registered Republican at the time, but changed her registration to Democratic in 2002)
1997 – Betsy McCaughey Ross, during her term as Lieutenant Governor of New York, after falling out of favour with Governor George Pataki
1997 – Debra J. Mazzarelli, New York State Assemblywoman
1998 – Russell W. Peterson, Governor of Delaware 1969–1973
1999 – Michael Forbes, while U.S. representative from New York(lost the primary election in 2000) <36>
1999 – Robert R. Neall, Maryland State Senator
first decade of the 21st century – Scott Heidepriem, before reentering the South Dakota Senate
2000 – Dean Johnson, former GOP State Senate Minority Leader and future DFL State Senate Majority Leader, while State Senator from Minnesota
2000 - Mark DeSaulnier, at the time Contra Costa County Supervisor, Future California State Assemblyman and State Senator.
2000 – Judi Dutcher, while State Auditor from Minnesota <36>
2000 – Margaret Gamble, South Carolina State Representative
2000 – Mickey Whatley, South Carolina State Representative
2000 – Randy Sauder, Georgia State Representative
2001 – John A. Lawless, Pennsylvania House of Representatives.<37>
2001 – Kathy Ashe, Georgia State Representative
2002 – D. G. Anderson, before filing for the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Hawaii
2002 – Charles R. Larson, before running for Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
2002 – Ray Nagin, days before filing for the mayoral race in New Orleans
2002 – Douglas Stalnaker, member of West Virginia House of Delegates
2003 – Michael Decker, North Carolina State Representative
2003 – Teresa Heinz Kerry, in protest of the campaign tactics used by Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia U.S. Senate race of 2002
2003 – Barbara Hafer, while State Treasurer of Pennsylvania <38>
2003 – Corey Corbin, New Hampshire State Representative
2003 – Stan Moody, Maine State Representative
2004 – Arthur Mayo, Maine State Senator
2004 – Scott Dix, Georgia State Representative
2005 – Andy Warren, former Bucks County, Pennsylvania Commissioner and well-known local politician; lost Congressional bid in 2006 to Patrick Murphy
2005 – Paul J. Morrison, (Kansas) Johnson County District Attorney, to run successfully for attorney general in 2006<39><40>
2005 – Robert McCabe, Sheriff of Norfolk, Virginia
2005 – Steve Lukert, Kansas State Representative <41>
2006 – James Webb, US Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan, prior to running for U.S. Senate in Virginia
2006 – Mark Parkinson, former Kansas Republican Party Chairman, prior to running for Lieutenant Governor of Kansas<40><42>
2006 – Charles Barkley, former NBA basketball player, in anticipation of running for Governor of Alabama in 2014
2006 – Nancy Riley, GOP whip for the Oklahoma State Senate, as reported by the Daily Oklahoman.<43>
2006 – Kate Witek, while serving as Auditor of Nebraska <44>
2006 – Montana State Senator Sam Kitzenberg switched from Republican to Democrat with the reported motivation being to break a 25 to 25 tie (the new ratio will be 26 Democrats to 24 Republicans).<45>
2006 – Rodney Tom, switched parties while serving in the Washington State House of Representatives after the 2006 legislative session ended, announced he would run as a Democrat for State Senate in his district, in November 2006 defeated Republican incumbent state Senator Luke Esser.<46>
2006 – Diana Urban, Connecticut State Representative.
2006 – Cindy Neighbor, Kansas State Representative; served as moderate Republican from 2002 to 2004 before losing renomination in 2004 to a more conservative Republican; sought rematch and won as a Democrat in 2006
2006 – Judy Leyerzapf, Abilene, Kansas City Council member<41>
2006 – Barney Giese, County Prosecutor of Richland County, South Carolina
2007 – Pete McCloskey, former congressman from California
2007 – Walter Boasso, Louisiana state senator from Arabi to run for governor against Republican front-runner U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal.
2007 – Paul D. Froehlich, Illinois State Representative. According to the Chicago Tribune, Froehlich is cited as saying that the Republican Party "future prospects are not that good".
2007 – Mike Spano, New York State Assemblyman. His brother, Nicholas Spano, was defeated for re-election by Andrea Stewart-Cousins on November 7, 2006.
2007 – Janet DiFiore, Westchester County NY District Attorney
2007 – Chris Koster, In the middle of term in Missouri State Senate.<47>
2007 – Milward Dedman, Kentucky State Representative
2007 – Melvin B. Henley, Kentucky State Representative
2007 – Kirk England, Texas State Representative <48>
2007 – James Hovland, while Mayor of Edina, Minnesota
2007 – Francis Bodine, New Jersey State Representative
2007 – Debbie Stafford, Colorado State Representative <49>
2007 – Entire Town Council in Lyndhurst, New Jersey
2007 – Fred Jarrett, Washington State Representative
2007 – Karen Awana, Hawaii State Representative
2007 – Mike Gabbard, Hawaii State Senator
2008 - Scott Haggerty, Alameda County Supervisor <50>
2008 – Rich White, Eau Claire County, WI, District Attorney
2008 – Lou Thieblemont, Mayor of Camp Hill, Penn. switched his party registration to Democrat to vote for Obama in the Pennsylvania primary <51>
2008 – Dorsey Miller, Florida, serves on Gov. Charlie Crist's African American Council, major Florida Republican fund raiser.<52>
2009 – Dale Swenson, Kansas State Representative from Wichita switched January 12, 2009 moments after being sworn into office as Republican for eighth term <53> In 2010, Swenson's Democratic opponent in 2008, Leslie (Les) Osterman, switched to Republican and defeated Swenson< Wichita Eagle, October 16, 2010; Sedgwick County Election Commissioner, November 8, 2010>
2009 – Arlen Specter, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, switched April 27, 2009, after five terms in the GOP.<54>
2010 – Lora Rae Anderson, Former Chair of the Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans, switched May 21, 2010, two weeks after her term as Chair ended with the Republicans.<55>
2011 - Alabama State Rep. Daniel Boman (Sulligent) switches to Democratic Party

[hfojvt]

5. lot of fairly obscure people on that list

Steve Lukert? Seriously? Of course you can get a long list if you include state Reps. And Markos? Well you might as well include me too then, and my parents. Dad may even have been on the school board when he switched parties.

But then again, many people in the OP seemed obscure to me too.

[99th_Monkey]

6. +100,000 what FarLeftFist said. awesome!!! nt

[Cali_Democrat]

9. I wonder if the OP will respond to this list....

[FarLeftFist]

3. Sure their are more republicans but the parties went through

Some serious changes.

[MrScorpio]

4. Is there a point? nt

[Ex Lurker]

7. Good riddance to Rodney Alexander. He was a tool as a Democrat, he's a tool as a Republican nt

[fishwax]

8. lol

:shrug:

[Electric Monk]

11. a shit ton

Is that heavier than a cootie ton?

[SoCalDem]

10. Not surprised at all. There are more "conservative" dems

than there are "liberal" republicans.

Politicians prefer being elected to losing, so they will do whatever is necessary to stay elected..the irony is that even when a dem switches to an "R", they often get defeated anyway because republicans prefer the real-thing to a turncoat dem pretending to be a republican.. Dems will tolerate a republican pretending to be a dem (DLCers like Landrieu), but republicans are less tolerant..but then we all knew that, didn't we:)