January 6, 2003
MORE LOTT FALLOUT:
County leaders switch parties: County Commissioner Steve Simon and Supervisor of Elections Kurt Browning became Republicans on Friday. (JAMES THORNER, December 21, 2002, St. Petersburg Times)Two of the Pasco County Democratic Party's leading lights, County Commissioner Steve Simon and Supervisor of Elections Kurt Browning, have defected to the rival Republicans.Citing dissatisfaction with a Democratic philosophy that has tilted to the left over the years, Simon and Browning changed their voter registration to the GOP on Friday. [...]
Browning said the modern-day Democrats are not the same party he registered with as a teenager 25 years ago.
He contemplated a party switch for several years, feeling uncomfortable with left-leaning ideas of party faithful. One of the last straws was the choice of San Francisco legislator Nancy Pelosi to lead the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
There's always been a profound illogic to the idea that Republicans implicitly exploit race for political gain but that by making an explicit issue of race the Democrats can reap dividends. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 6, 2003 1:07 PM
I didn't see any mention of the Lott affair in the article. It sounds like they would've switched regardless.
Posted by: Jed Roberts at January 6, 2003 12:22 PMThe point being that they switched regardless, in a state where black votes are thought to matter.
Posted by: oj at January 6, 2003 1:00 PMThere's nothing illogical about it, if you accept the axiom that there is good racism and bad racism, and the Democrats and Republicans represent each respectively.
And that's the problem-- if you can't agree on the axioms, you will agree on nothing else. Which is why, it is important to make sure that the right set of axioms prevail.