Republicans Running as Democrats
by Margie Burns | Sep 4 2006 - 2:08pm
Desperate to hold on to Congress amid declining polls, enveloping scandals and the deeply unpopular Iraq war, Republicans are trying a new tactic in 2006. They are running as Democrats. Around the U.S., suspiciously recent converts are showing up as Democrats in races for the House and the Senate.
Regardless of where they live, these newcomer Dems tend to share a few arresting characteristics. They switched from Republican to Democrat in 2005, often late in 2005. Their switch was quiet and without fanfare. The switch took place without vocal protest or attack from the national Republican Party. They immediately or soon declared intention of running for office as Democrats. Even in a heated election year, their candidacies have not drawn attacks or accusations of treason, betrayal or other name-calling typically beloved by the great noise machine. Often they have functioned in their respective elections as spoilers of a Democratic candidate or of a Democratic primary, and predictably they have chosen to run in a district or state either predominately Democratic or trending away from the GOP.
The most prominent example of this phenomenon in Maryland is Joshua B. Rales, running for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat after a lifetime of commitment to Republican politics and after donating many thousands of dollars to the GOP in several elections. Indeed, so dedicated a financial supporter of Republican candidates at all levels was Josh Rales that he donated several thousand dollars to the ill-fated candidacy of Ruthann Aron, who later became internationally famous for trying to hire a hit man to carry out attacks on her husband and an attorney. Self-funded, Rales is pouring millions into a television ad campaign in which he speaks forcefully although broadly against the Iraq war. Polling at 7 percent, he is given no chance of winning the primary against leading candidates Kweisi Mfume and Ben Cardin. Rales has, however, received favorable media treatment from the rightwing Washington Times and Wall Street Journal. If he chose to run as a third candidate after losing the primary, he would benefit GOP Senate nominee Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in a state where Democrats hold the advantage in party registration. Calling a candidate like this Democratic is like calling the wooden horse Trojan.
Attempts to spoil a primary election do not always work. Lawyer and Iraq war veteran Patrick Murphy in Pennsylvania District 8 staved off a run by a former Republican Bucks County Commissioner who recently switched parties. But for people with little time to research their candidates, media hype against incumbents in general benefits spoilers as much as it benefits genuine alternative candidates. And sometimes the switchers switch back. In Washington state, Warren E. Hanson, a fisherman who switched to Democrat to run against Senator Patty Murray in 2004, is now running in the 2006 GOP primary. Nor do switchers for local office always enjoy a happy ending. Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, was a longtime Republican who switched to run for mayor in a vacant Democratic position. Some party switchers, of course, owe their conversion to the Iraq war. Of these, the most famous is Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb, a Vietnam veteran and voice for the Scotch Irish who recently switched parties and defeated Harris Miller in the Democratic primary. Webb has been restrained on the campaign trail, but Republican incumbent Sen. George Allen, son of a famous football coach, is aggressively running against himself anyway. And in Florida, Clint Curtis, veteran of a different kind of war, the massive Florida scandal over election fraud allegations, recently switched to run in the Sept. 5 Democratic primary in District 24. If victorious, he will challenge Florida Rep. Tom Feeney...
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