Another Dem switches to the GOP

The beat continues as another county-wide elected official in Simpson County leaves the Democratic Party for the Republican Party. Andy Taggart notes that Circuit Clerk Cindy Jenson decided to follow the lead of her colleagues and leave the Obama-Pelosi Party and join the GOP.

In case you missed it, here is the Republican press conference from last week announcing the first wave of switchers.

Brian Perry writes this is an opportunity like during the Clinton Administration for Republicans to clearly draw lines between the two parties.

The Clinton years from 1993 to 2001 created an atmosphere ripe for Republican growth through disenchanted Democrats. Between the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck’s switch to the Republican Party in 2002, about 50 Mississippi Democratic elected officials left to join the Republican Party, including Rep. Mike Parker in 1995. Nationwide, the Clinton administration watched as more than 440 Democrat elected officials switched to the GOP in eight years.

It may be time for the GOP to start counting again.

The six Democratic elected officials switching last week, added to the switch of Rep. Billy Nicholson earlier this year, putting the Mississippi GOP at converting an elected Democrat to their side once every six weeks since the inauguration of Barack Obama. No one expects that pace to remain constant, but if the Mississippi Republican Party continues to draw Democratic elected officials into the fold, it doesn’t matter whether it is a referendum on a growingly unpopular Democratic presidential administration, or just local politics. Either way, it is bad news for Democrats, doubly so for local ones.

I guess the question is, in the words of Bill Goldberg, “Who’s next?”

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