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CANTON - Van Zandt County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Ronnie Daniell announced that he is switching parties and will run as a Republican in 2006. Daniell ran for office in 2003 on the Democratic ticket. He said his change of heart comes from his disappointment in certain leaders of the Democratic Party. "It's just very simple: I'm a person who believes in trying to be a peacemaker," he said. "With the leadership I've noted in the national and local party, I cannot in good conscience follow that party." Daniell said he has been considering the switch for awhile,...

A seven-year legislative veteran is switching parties, giving Republicans a milestone 100 seats in the House of Representatives. State Rep. Greg Morris, a Vidalia Democrat and entrenched party insider, is set to appear before friends and supporters in his hometown today to announce his defection to the GOP. His decision bolsters the comfort level of the new Republican leadership in the 180-member House, which heads into the 2006 General Assembly session in control of 100 seats, nine more votes than they need to pass most legislation. His defection is significant for Democrats since Morris, 41, was part of former Democratic...

A seven-year legislative veteran has switched parties, giving Republicans 100 House seats and added momentum to the party going into the 2006 governor's race. State Rep. Greg Morris, a Vidalia Democrat and party insider, is set to appear before friends and supporters in his hometown tomorrow to announce his defection to the GOP. His decision bolsters the comfort level of the new Republican leadership, which now heads into the 2006 legislative session with nine more seats than they need to win any vote in the 180-member chamber. His defection is significant for Democrats since Morris was part of former Democratic...

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean urged members of his party to "stand up for what you believe in" at a lightly-attended fundraiser Thursday night, but none of Louisiana's leading Democrats was there for the message - not Gov. Kathleen Blanco or Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, or even the chairman of the state party, Jim Bernhard. Dean afterwards attributed the absences to "schedules," but his selection as DNC chairman earlier this year was opposed by many conservative Democrats, and they continue to express dismay over the Vermont governor's tough words for the party in power. The no-shows underscored the challenge...

N.C. governor polls 'King of the Hill' fans The Associated Press June 26, 2005   6:11 pm RALEIGH, N.C. -- Gov. Mike Easley has turned his affection for Fox TV's animated show, "King of the Hill," into a target group in his polls.Easley, who views the show's main character as a man devoid of party label, asked his pollster several years ago to separate "King of the Hill" viewers in poll results in order to use them as a political barometer."What happens in the show is, the wrestling (with issues) manifests itself in the gray area," Easley said Friday. "He...

COLUMBIA -- When National Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean visits Columbia on Wednesday, South Carolina's top Democratic elected official, Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, won't be there. "I had already, months ago, scheduled to be out of state," she said last week. Florence Mayor Frank Willis, one of two announced Democratic candidates for governor in 2006, also has other plans. Willis said he'll be touring Dillon, Marion and Williamsburg counties. "We're going to start early that morning and finish late that evening," he said. The other Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Aiken Sen. Tommy Moore, couldn't be reached. Winthrop University political science...

If you watch a lot of cable news, by now you've probably heard someone refer to a bloc of voters known as '' 'South Park' conservatives.'' The term comes from the title of a new book by Brian C. Anderson, a conservative pundit who adapted it from the writer Andrew Sullivan, and it refers to the notion that Comedy Central's obscene spoof of life in small-town America, with its hilarious skewering of liberal snobbery, is somehow the perfect crucible for understanding a new breed of brash and irreverent Republican voters. In truth, aside from its title, Anderson's book has very...

Van Zandt County Sheriff Pat Burnett announced Tuesday that he is switching parties. Burnett, formerly a Democrat, has aligned himself with the Republican Party. He said his decision has nothing to do with the people of the Democratic Party, but hinges entirely on platform issues. "I'm committed to doing the right thing," he said. "I thought it was the appropriate time to do it. It's not right before my election so it becomes an issue, it's the issue now." Burnett also said it's no secret that he ran as a Democrat in 2000 because "my mother asked me to." "I...

South Carolina Democrats will be holding their breath next week when their embattled national chairman arrives in town to have a few beers with the grass-roots and raise money for the state party. Please, Howard Dean, don’t say anything that will embarrass us or subject us to ridicule, the party faithful pray. Dean still is smarting from his remark that Republicans are “pretty much a white Christian party.” Several congressional Democrats have called him on the carpet and ordered him to halt his divisive comments. A handful of S.C. Democratic leaders tried to downplay a series of controversial remarks made...

Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell has switched to the Republican Party almost 10 years in office as a Democrat, saying his work within his department is more in line with the principals of the GOP.

JACKSON, Miss. - Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell has switched to the Republican Party after nine years in office as a Democrat, saying his work within his department is more in line with the principals of the GOP. Spell announced his decision late Friday in a written release. "I think over the years I have made a lot of changes in my department...increased efficiency and downsizing government," Spell said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "This is very much in line with the principals of the Republican Party." Spell, a former mayor of Richland, said the switch to the...

Lawrence Davis, a former state Democratic Party chairman from Raleigh, has switched his registration to the Republican Party. Davis said he decided to switch parties because his personal beliefs on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriages and the lottery differed from the positions of the Democratic Party. "Basically, it's an effort to bring some coherence between my beliefs and my actions," Davis said. "I felt my [former] party was on the wrong side of right-wrong issues."

Southern Democrats Turning GOP NewsMax.com Wires Monday, April 25, 2005 WASHINGTON -- In consecutive days last month, Alabama lost two legends from a disappearing movement - Southern Democrats who were powerful in Washington because of their party's majority and powerful back home because of their tendency to buck it. Look around Congress these days and you'll find few conservative Democrats in the mold of the late Sen. Howell Heflin or Rep. Tom Bevill. Those who remain are almost as likely to represent the Midwest or Great Plains as the once-solid South. According to Congressional Observer Publications, only one current House...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In consecutive days last month, Alabama lost two legends from a disappearing movement - Southern Democrats who were powerful in Washington because of their party's majority and powerful back home because of their tendency to buck it. Look around Congress these days and you'll find few conservative Democrats in the mold of the late Sen. Howell Heflin or Rep. Tom Bevill. Those who remain are almost as likely to represent the Midwest or Great Plains as the once-solid South.According to Congressional Observer Publications, only one current House member voted against his party at least a third of...

In consecutive days last month, Alabama lost two legends from a disappearing movement — Southern Democrats powerful in Washington because of their party's majority and powerful back home because of their tendency to buck it. Look around Congress these days and you'll find few conservative Democrats in the mold of the late Sen. Howell Heflin or Rep. Tom Bevill. Those who remain are almost as likely to represent the Midwest or Great Plains as the once-solid South. According to Congressional Observer Publications, only one current member of the U.S. House voted against his party at least a third of the...

Howard Dean called the other day and started talking about Jesus. Yes, that Howard Dean. Yes, that Jesus. Dean is the doctor and former Vermont governor who now is chairman of the Democratic National Committee, having pretty much screamed himself out of the Democratic presidential nomination last year. Along the campaign path he remarked that his favorite New Testament book was Job, which, actually, is in the Old Testament. It was insinuated that Dean, like the Alan Alda character on "West Wing," wasn't all that much for churchgoing. The way to insinuate such a thing is to call a man...

THE first signs of a Democratic revolt against Senator Hillary Clinton’s much-anticipated march on the White House are emerging in the American South, where one of the party’s most successful state governors called last week for Democrats to consider other candidates. In a calculated snub of Clinton’s accelerating bandwagon, Governor Philip Bredesen of Tennessee warned that voters were “kind of dissatisfied” with the Democrats’ current presidential contenders and that Clinton would face an “uphill road” to win the White House.

JACKSON, Miss. - Praying for American troops and evoking biblical images of helping the needy, Howard Dean told Mississippi Democrats on Tuesday night that the national party won't give up on socially conservative states. "We're not going to concede the South," the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee told an overflow crowd of more than 900 people in a dining room that was set up for 800 in the Clarion hotel near downtown Jackson. "The South will rise again, and when it does, it will have a D under its name," Dean said to applause from the diverse crowd...

WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- Citing his dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party and its liberalism, Tippah County, Miss., Sheriff Brandon Vance switched parties Tuesday. "Howard Dean taking the chairmanship of the Democratic Party brought home to me that I was no longer comfortable in the Democratic Party. Dean's and the Democratic National Committee's values and beliefs are too far on the fringe for me," Vance said. Vance's decision to join the GOP continues a trend that picked up steam after Mississippi Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck switched parties prior to her successful bid for re-election. State Republican officials said four state...

Friday, February 25 Mudcat Slings It Southnow’s Jon Bloom had the chance to sit down with political strategist David “Mudcat” Saunders, a speaker on the “Mind of the South” panel. Saunders, a self-confessed ‘colorful quote,’ did not disappoint. A word of warning to sensitive readers: Saunders did not pull any punches. SouthNow: Why did the Democrats lose in 2004? Mudcat: They can’t f***’n count. That’s the Democrats’ problem. You don’t get in the football game and punt on first down. You concede nothing. We condeded 20 states at first and then six more by Labor Day. That’s 227 electoral votes....