- Moderator
- #1
It seems that both the Democrats and Republicans are moving further into their respective corners leaving an ever widening and gaping hole in the middle where fewer and fewer politicians can survive.
Davis also suggested running as a Republican might be a viable option, but said that the Alabama Republican Party has declined to embrace politicians who have switched parties. He noted that party-switching former congressman Parker Griffith was defeated in a GOP primary last year after leaving the Democratic Party. A series of Democrats in lower offices, including the state legislature, have made the same switch, with mixed results.
While there have been Democrats who have switched down there, the Republican Party has refused to accept them, Davis said. Do I agree with the agenda items in the Alabama Republican Party? Some I agree with, and some I dont. [The state GOP-drafted] immigration law is not something I would have written.
Davis said he doesnt identify with a political party in his current role as an increasingly vocal pundit. He caused a splash recently by speaking out in favor of a voter ID law. Given that the Democratic Party regards such laws as an attempt to disenfranchise black voters, having an African-American former Democratic congressman espouse that view wasnt exactly helpful to the partys cause.
This week, he wrote a piece for the conservative National Review Online suggesting Sen. Ben Nelsons (D-Neb.) retirement was due to an exclusively liberal Democratic Party.
Daviss criticism of his party ramped up in the 2010 primary, when he carved out a more moderate persona. He wound up losing badly to the states agriculture commissioner, Ron Sparks, by 25 points. Sparks went on to defeat in the general election, and bad blood lingers between the two.
Former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis talks party-switching - The Washington Post