Politicians who switch parties after being elected to office may bask in the limelight during the brief period after their party hopping, but almost all end up in the ash heap of history, with both their political careers and personal reputations tarnished forever. With state Representative Laura Bradford (R-Collbran) publicly debating whether to leave the GOP over an ethics investigation into police allegations of drunk driving, we thought it would be instructive to look at how other political defectors fared post-switch.
In Colorado, one need not look further than the Legislature. In 2007, state Representative Debbie Stafford defected to the Democrats over Republican criticism of her vote on a bill being pushed by trial lawyers. She ran for Mayor of Aurora in 2011 and got barely 11% of the vote, despite being the only high profile Democrat in the race.
In 2009, Democrat state Representative Kathleen Curry left her party to become an Unaffiliated voter. She lost her race to Democrat Roger Wilson, ending her political career as she knew it.
How about looking nationally?
In an acknowledgment that he couldn't fend off a primary challenge from Pat Toomey, Republican US Senator Arlen Specter switched parties to become a Democrat. He went on to be defeated in the Democrat primary by 8 points, despite having the backing of the Democrat Party in Pennsylvania and the political support of the Obama White House.
Pat Toomey is now a US Senator from Pennsylvania.
Republican US Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont was promised a committee chairmanship if he defected to the Democrats. Like Bradford's potential switch, when he did jump it changed the balance of power in the US Senate, giving Democrats control. All hell broke loose, but 18 months after Jeffords joined the Democrat majority in the US Senate, Republicans won back the majority in the 2002 mid-term elections.
When Jeffords retired, only one Republican Senator spoke on his behalf on the Senate floor. Jeffords traitorous behavior lost him the respect and friendship of colleagues he had served with as far back as 1974, when he was first elected to the House.
In Alabama in 2009, Democrat Congressman Parker Griffith ditched the Democrat Party to become a Republican. In 2010, Griffith lost the Republican primary 51-33 to now-Congressman Mo Brooks.
Or look to Florida. In 2010, Republican Governor Charlie Christ was afraid of losing the GOP US Senate primary to rising star, and now US Senator Marco Rubio. So Crist ditched his party and ran for the US Senate as an Independent. Rubio crushed Crist by almost 20 points in the general election, even beating him with independents, according to exit polls.
Crist is now persona non grata in Florida politics.
Why does party switching pretty much never work out for the defector? It smacks of self-interest and petty politics.
Based on the harshly negative view held towards people like Debbie Stafford, Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter, it seems better for a politician contemplating switching parties to just resign.
Better to lose your job and keep your reputation than chuck both overboard.
I can't recall, but did Lisa Murkowski in Alaska win as an Independent? I know she was a write-in candidate, but was she written-in as a Republican or Independent?
she was officially considered “write-in.” (There were two gubernatorial candidates who were officially “independent.” I guess the designation matters only because they got themselves on the ballot, probably by petition.) But she never left the GOP. BUT… her campaign did toy with the idea of running as a Libertarian, but they already had a guy who wouldn’t stand down for her.
Who knows what would have happened if she had? Would it have ended up like Tom Tancredo?
Bueller? … Bueller? … Bueler? ………
He switched in 1995, that’s ancient history in political times.
Is that the best you can do?
Not only was that a lifetime ago, but are you really comparing Bradford and Nighthorse Campbell? Bradford is some schmuck state legislator from Collbran who almost no one knows, while Nighthorse Campbell was a highly respected US Senator.
One had a reputation with room to spare, while the other is accused of drunk driving.
Additionally, Colorado was a Republican state when Nighthorse Campbell switched to the GOP. Bradford is from a highly Republican area, who would not take her defection lightly.
because the entire point of this diary is “PARTY TRAITORS BE STOOPID LOOSERS.” Besides the fact that none of their examples involve anyone who switched due to scandal, Specter was more respected than Ben. (Not by the hard right, of course, but by everyone else.)
how you feel about Tom Tancredo and what he did in 2010?
My first thought was Nighthorse Campbell. He did pretty well for himself, and if he ran for something today he’d likely walk to victory.
Aristotle, my apologies for not addressing your prior Bradford posts sooner. I think the situation has gotten ridiculous at this point. She can’t possibly be so dense to realize that she must face some kind of scrutiny from the Legislature (i.e. ethics committee). The findings of the committee are likely to be in her favor, based on what the DPD said. If you want my honest opinion, legislators DO think they are hot-shit and above the law. However, based on what I’ve heard to this point, she did try to face the consequences as the DPD said. The Peak was silent, but since I don’t run it, I can’t speak to why they didn’t speak about it sooner.
are deducible. But I don’t need to belabor the point.
Check out the story I posted in a reply to cologeek. Some ‘pubs think the ethics panel is inappropriate.
That link was posted under another thread. Doi… here it is.
http://www.denverpost.com/legi…
When Dems go Republican they do tend to do well. Not so much the other way around.
Good one. Now then…
How about when they become independents? (Which I bet is 100x more likely in Bradford’s case than joining the Democrats.)