Alabama

Alabama Lawmaker Abandons GOP Over New Law Aimed At Teachers

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 26, 2011, 7:32PM

Alabama State Capitol

Chalk up another Democratic win this week: Alabama State Rep. Daniel Boman, who entered the legislature as a Republican in November, is switching parties to become a Democrat after he says the GOP went too far in attacking teachers in the state.

It's just the latest example of mainline Republicans turning on their party following the November sweep which put them in control of the House. On Tuesday, the solidly-Republican 26th Congressional District in New York rejected the GOP in part over the party's decision to end Medicare in the House budget. A few days before that, the Democrats stunned the Republican city of Jacksonville by electing the first Democratic mayor in 20 years. In New Hampshire, Democrats picked up a surprising win in a legislative special election.

Now there's Boman, who's walking away from the GOP after it took on the state's public school teachers.

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2010 elections

Alabama Party Switchers Boost State GOP

Eric Kleefeld | November 26, 2010, 9:16AM

Alabama State Capitol

Just like the last big Republican mega-wave of 1994, the election of 2010 has been followed by a series of low-level party switches among remaining conservative Southern Democrats. And in Alabama, where the GOP gained majorities in both houses of the state legislature, the latest round of switching has had an extra special effect.

As the Montgomery Advertiser reports, the switches of four conservative Dem state representatives to the Republican Party this past Monday has given the GOP 66 seats out of 105 in the House. As it turns out, both houses of the Alabama legislature have rules that allow for the minority to force procedural delays similar to the filibuster in the U.S. Senate. And these Dems have gotten the GOP right there to the three-fifths majority necessary to force cloture, along with the cloture-ready majority they also achieved in the Senate.

The incoming Republican Speaker Mike Hubbard said that the party will maintain unity on those key procedural votes, thus using their supermajority to its fullest:

He said they will require Republicans to vote in a bloc to bring up legislation that is on the caucus's agenda, but "we never tell a member how to vote on final passage." He said it is important for the caucus to stand together on issues important to the members."

Alabama

Artur Davis: My Political Career Is Over

Ben Frumin | June 3, 2010, 6:14PM

Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL)

Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) declared his political career all but over yesterday, after getting crushed 62-38 in his state's Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday.

"I have no interest in running for political office again," Davis said, according to the Birmingham News. "The voters spoke in a very decisive way across every sector and in every section of the state. A candidate that fails across the board like that obviously needs to find something else productive to do with his life."

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