In the aftermath of the 1994 “Republican Revolution” there were a further handful of Democrats in the Congress that decided that being in the minority stinks, so went on to switch parties (Senators Richard Shelby of AL and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of CO come to mind). Now the same phenomenon is taking place in Alabama at the state level. I noted a few weeks back that the GOP finally captured control of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. That victory has now lead to some Democrats to jump to the Republican Party (again: being in the minority stinks).
The four Democrats in the Alabama House of Representatives who switched par ties Monday, give Republicans the necessary majorities in both chambers of the Legislature to vote as a bloc to bring up their agenda or to shut down delays from Democrats.
Alan Boothe of Troy, Mike Millican of Hamilton, Lesley Vance of Phenix City, and Steve Hurst of Munford announced their switch, which was reported by the Montgomery Advertiser on Friday.
The shift brings the number of Republicans in the House to 66, compared to 39 Democrats.
Republicans on Tuesday appeared to take control of the Alabama Legislature, with top Republicans claiming to have close to 60 seats in the 105-member House of Representatives and perhaps 22 seats in the 35-member Senate.
In other words: this is the first time since Reconstruction that the Republicans control the state legislature. In many ways it is quite remarkable that in a states as conservative as Alabama has taken this long for the transition in the party system to filter down to the state legislative level.
Indeed, Republicans swept state-level offices: Kay Ivey completes stunning GOP sweep in slim victory for lieutenant governor seat and also retook AL02 after one term under Democrat Bobby Bright. Martha Roby is now the US Representative from that district. Interestingly, Roby defeated a Tea Party backed candidate in the primary.
This is the second round of a two-round process, and Worker’s Party (PT) candidate Dilma Rousseff is the clear favorite after coming within shouting distance of an absolute majority in the first round.
The other candidate is Jose Serra of the Social Democratic Party. Rouseff had a 14 point advantage over Serra in the first round.
A win for Rousseff will mean a continuation in the presidency of the PT which has held the office for two terms (eight years) under President Lula da Silva.
Rousseff will also be the first female president of Brazil and will join Latin American neighbors Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua and Panama as having had female presidents.
There is little doubt that there is political hay to be made in opposing the Obama health care reform this campaign season. However, it is illogical in the extreme to extol Medicare at the same time one is complaining about “government run healthcare.” And yet, as I noted at OTB this morning, Dan Coates is doing just that in a campaign ad.
Likewise, Alex Knapp noted a similar ad a few days ago from Roy Blunt.
Not that it is a surprise if one knows the politics of the region, but I was struck as to how much this could have been from a debate between US candidates:
In Sunday night’s TV debate, Mr Serra accused Ms Rousseff of abandoning her position on moral issues in a bid to win over religious voters.
"You clearly said you were in favour of legalising abortion and then you changed and said the opposite," said Mr Serra, a former Sao Paulo governor.
"In some interviews, you doubted God’s existence and now you are a believer."
Dilma Rousseff is the PT (Workers Party) candidate, and the favorite going into the second round. Jose Serra is the Social Democratic Party candidate.
Ms Rousseff, who won 46.9% in the first round to Mr Serra’s 32.6%, has seen her lead in the opinion polls narrow.
The polls show:
Latest opinion polls put Ms Rousseff, who fell short of a first round win on 3 October, on 48% and Mr Serra on 41%.
Should we be concerned about alliances between some American politicos and hypernationalist, xeniphobic European groups? How about the general tenor of the rhetoric about Sharia and Islam being deployed in some corners of mainstream American politics?
At 3pm local time today, Juan Manuel Santos will be sworn in as president of Colombia, succeeding Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
Santos will serve the 2024-2014 term and will be eligible to run for re-election. Santos represents an interesting bridge between the traditional politics of Colombia (his family is linked to the Liberal Party) and the newly emerging party system (he won as the first official candidate of the Partido de Unidad Social) as well as the politics of uribismo. There can be no doubt that Santos represents a significant case of continuism vis-a-vis the Uribe administration.
For a little more on the background of Santos, see here.
The elections will be held on October 3rd and the the teo front runners are Dilma Rousseff of the Worker’s Party (PT), i.e., the part of incumbent President Lula da Silva. Dilma was Lula’s chief of staff, but has never held elective office.
Her chief rival is Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party. He has a lengthy resume, including most recently the governorship of Sao Paulo.
