{"id":3093,"date":"2009-12-22T15:07:21","date_gmt":"2009-12-22T20:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=3093"},"modified":"2009-12-22T15:33:02","modified_gmt":"2009-12-22T20:33:02","slug":"blue-dog-democrat-jumps-ship-joins-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/22\/blue-dog-democrat-jumps-ship-joins-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Dog Democrat Jumps Ship; Joins Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Politico<\/a>:<\/p>\n

POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he\u2019s switching parties to become a Republican.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0two senior GOP aides familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place this afternoon in Griffith’s district in northern Alabama.<\/p>\n

Griffith\u2019s party switch comes on the eve of a pivotal congressional health care vote and will send a jolt through a Democratic House Caucus that has already been unnerved by the recent retirements of a handful of members who, like Griffith, hail from districts that offer prime pickup opportunities for the GOP in 2010.<\/p>\n

The switch represents a coup for the House Republican leadership, which had been courting Griffith since he publicly criticized the\u00a0Democratic leadership in the wake of raucous town halls during the summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rep. Griffith’s announcement comes on the heels of a wave of Blue Dog Democrat retirements<\/a>, for the moment his switch has far more symbolic than substantive value… The Democrats still have a 40 seat majority in the House. I do suspect, however, that Rep. Griffith won’t be the last Blue Dog to jump ship. There’s pretty sizable anti-Democrat wave sweeping the country and unless something changes drastically between now and November 2, 2010 Congressional Democrats would appear to be headed for a fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Politico: POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he\u2019s switching parties to become a Republican. According to\u00a0two senior GOP aides familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place this afternoon in Griffith’s district in northern Alabama. Griffith\u2019s party switch comes on the eve of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[534,720,939],"class_list":{"0":"post-3093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics","7":"tag-2010-elections","8":"tag-house-of-representatives","9":"tag-parker-griffith","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-NT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1493,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/13\/breaking-house-democrats-pass-stimulus-package\/","url_meta":{"origin":3093,"position":0},"title":"Breaking: House Democrats Pass Stimulus Package","author":"Jeff","date":"February 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"House Democrats today voted to pass the pork laden so called \"Stimulus Plan\" without a single Republican vote. The final tally was 246-183, with 7 Democrats joining all 176 house Republicans in voting no. 1 Democrat voted present. Update: Here's a list of the Democrats who voted against the bill:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2901,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/31\/ny-23-scozzafava-quits\/","url_meta":{"origin":3093,"position":1},"title":"NY-23: Scozzafava Quits!","author":"Jeff","date":"October 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Dede Scozzafava, the hand-picked choice of the New York state GOP has suspended her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and is releasing all her supporters: Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence parties candidate, announced Saturday that she is suspending her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and releasing all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4577,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/14\/voters-head-to-polls-in-connecticut-elsewhere-for-primary\/","url_meta":{"origin":3093,"position":2},"title":"Voters Head to Polls in Connecticut; Elsewhere for Primary","author":"Jeff","date":"August 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Voters in Connecticut and three other states -- Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin head to the polls today to select candidates for House and Senate races in November. This year some of the most hotly contested and most closely watched races are right here in Connecticut: HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Connecticut\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Vote-Here.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2874,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/21\/dede-scozzafava-what-the-heck-were-republicans-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":3093,"position":3},"title":"Dede Scozzafava? What the Heck Were Republicans Thinking???","author":"Jeff","date":"October 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to confess the November 3rd special election in New York's 23rd congressional district wasn't even on my radar until I read this Wall Street Journal article... Since then I've been keeping a close on the race between erstwhile Republican Dede Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Party candidate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2916,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/03\/election-day-november-3-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":3093,"position":4},"title":"Election Day: November 3, 2009","author":"Jeff","date":"November 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I wanted to post this earlier but I suffered a bout of \"connectile dysfunction\" this morning and this is the first chance I've had to post... Get out and Vote! Preferably for the conservative candidate of your choice, but I digress. The bulk of our attention has been focused on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Vote Here","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Vote-Here-300x291.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2229,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/gop-introduces-alternative-to-obamacare\/","url_meta":{"origin":3093,"position":5},"title":"GOP Introduces Alternative to Obamacare","author":"Jeff","date":"May 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Republicans in the House and Senate\u00a0 today announced an alternative to Pres. Barack Obama's universal health care proposal. The Patients' Choice Act, will be introduced in the Senate by Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC), and in the House by Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) aims for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health Care"","block_context":{"text":"Health Care","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/health-care\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}