Arkansas State House: Another Democrat Switches to GOP

[smoltchanov]

No big surprises hele: Hillman was right-of-center type Democrat, and Wardlow - probably the most conservative Democrat in Arkansas legislature and among five most conservative Democratic legislators in the nation (in fact - he was more conservative then some Republican legislators in Arkansas). Taking into consideration that Republicans will, most likely, be in full control of the state for at least 20 years - rather natural decision. Some years ago similar situation existed in Mississippi and Louisiana, with literally dozens Democratic state legislators switching. With fewer blacks then in these two states Arkansas Democratic party is still not "a black party", but - becoming so....

[smoltchanov]

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No, Barrow wasn't. There is Mark Warner, Joe Manchin, Charlie Crist, and Bill Nelson. They are white Southern Democrats at the federal level in Congress.

Many people doesn't consider Virginia's and Florida as "typically Southern". Georgia (with all of Deep South) - unquestionably is. And then previous statement becomes true (and possibly will be true for sometime as whites really leave Democratic party there "en masse")

[smoltchanov]

'Rats from a sinking ship' is the phrase that springs to mind.

As much as i don't like rats, i am no fan of sinking ships either..

[smoltchanov]

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No, Barrow wasn't. There is Mark Warner, Joe Manchin, Charlie Crist, and Bill Nelson. They are white Southern Democrats at the federal level in Congress.

Allow me to rephrase that - Last White Southerner in the Deep South, and for most of the Upper South. Virginia has been turned to Greater DC, and Florida is no longer a Southern state south of Gainesville. (But the panhandle and Jacksonville can be considered Southern.) I consider WV to be culturally Southern compared to VA, but I can't exactly decide on how to pinpoint it.

Why does everyone forget about poor David Price

Research Triangle is not especially southern too)))

[smoltchanov]

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No, Barrow wasn't. There is Mark Warner, Joe Manchin, Charlie Crist, and Bill Nelson. They are white Southern Democrats at the federal level in Congress.

Allow me to rephrase that - Last White Southerner in the Deep South, and for most of the Upper South. Virginia has been turned to Greater DC, and Florida is no longer a Southern state south of Gainesville. (But the panhandle and Jacksonville can be considered Southern.) I consider WV to be culturally Southern compared to VA, but I can't exactly decide on how to pinpoint it.

Why does everyone forget about poor David Price

Research Triangle is not especially southern too)))

Is Jim Cooper not good enough either?

He is a moderate. Not long ago it would be considered liberal in the South, with conservatives being people like Dan Daniel, David Satterfield and Sonny Montgomery. And , if i understand correctly, the talk was about people from DEEP South. Tennessee is, generally, a "Peripheral South"...

[smoltchanov]

No big surprises hele: Hillman was right-of-center type Democrat, and Wardlow - probably the most conservative Democrat in Arkansas legislature and among five most conservative Democratic legislators in the nation (in fact - he was more conservative then some Republican legislators in Arkansas). Taking into consideration that Republicans will, most likely, be in full control of the state for at least 20 years - rather natural decision. Some years ago similar situation existed in Mississippi and Louisiana, with literally dozens Democratic state legislators switching. With fewer blacks then in these two states Arkansas Democratic party is still not "a black party", but - becoming so....

Per Wikipedia, Jeff Wardlaw is very young (graduated from college in 2002). Why was someone this conservative of his generation ever in the Democratic Party to begin with?

Until about 2010 Arkansas on legislative level was very Democratic. Including many conservative Democrats (though Wardlaw was one of the most conservative even among them). And his district is Southern Arkansas is, ancestrally, very Democratic. But - strictly in Southern sense of the word. Florida Panhandle was very Democratic and very conservative (on local level - still is in some counties) until relatively recent times too..

[smoltchanov]

No big surprises hele: Hillman was right-of-center type Democrat, and Wardlow - probably the most conservative Democrat in Arkansas legislature and among five most conservative Democratic legislators in the nation (in fact - he was more conservative then some Republican legislators in Arkansas). Taking into consideration that Republicans will, most likely, be in full control of the state for at least 20 years - rather natural decision. Some years ago similar situation existed in Mississippi and Louisiana, with literally dozens Democratic state legislators switching. With fewer blacks then in these two states Arkansas Democratic party is still not "a black party", but - becoming so....

Per Wikipedia, Jeff Wardlaw is very young (graduated from college in 2002). Why was someone this conservative of his generation ever in the Democratic Party to begin with?

Until about 2010 Arkansas on legislative level was very Democratic. Including many conservative Democrats (though Wardlaw was one of the most conservative even among them). And his district is Southern Arkansas is, ancestrally, very Democratic. But - strictly in Southern sense of the word. Florida Panhandle was very Democratic and very conservative (on local level - still is in some counties) until relatively recent times too..

I could understand if he were some 70 year old who got started in politics when the coalitions were very different. But for someone born in the 1980s to be a conservative and a Democrat is as illogical as being a liberal and a Republican. It would be like someone in their 30s in Massachusetts running as a Republican while not actually agreeing with the party on anything and voting to the left of many Democrats (though that sounds like something a lot of people on this forum would do).

In short - there are such people both in Arkansas and Massachusetts)). Why is Warwick mayor Scott Avedisian (self-proclaimed liberal Republican and not especially old himself (slightly over 50)) a Republican in very Democratic Rhode Island??? But he decided this way. And, IMHO, it's good. And it would be good if both conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans would exist in the future instead of political polarisation, which leads to "bold progressives" running somewhere in North Louisiana, and conservatives - on Manhattan or in Bay Area... And many other cases of similar idiocy...

[smoltchanov]

Seems like the Southern Democratic party is literally become a "blacks only" party as Southern whites flee in droves to the GOP.

John Barrow was the last White Southern Dem at the federal level in Congress. He would have went in 2012 rather than 2014 had my district not ran the bumbling idiot Lee Anderson in 2012.

Deep Southern, not Southern. Although even then, that isn't entirely true because of Gwen Graham.

+1 Graham's district was unquestionably southern. But now - ... Honestly i don't see Democrats winning any of "genuine southern" non-black majority districts anytime soon. The closest who came in 2016 was Ruby's opponent in AL-02, who got about 45.5% of 2-party vote and more then 40% of all vote (to my surprise)

[smoltchanov]

71 House Democrats when Obama took office and the Senate was even more Democratic. An amazing collapse of the Arkansas Democratic party.

It was moderate-to-conservative Democratic party, which held power on legislative level in Arkansas up to middle-2000th. Which had little common with Obama, Hillary or national Democratic party. Now, as one writer on DKE counted, only 3  Democratic state Senators and 5 state Representatives of this sort (pragmatic conservatives) remain in  Arkansas legislature. People of the state simply say: "we respect OUR Democrats of the past, but we don't want to have anything in common with present day national Democratic party and it's program. We care about agriculture, transportation, education, but not abortions, gay marriage and bathrooms". Essentially, the same what happened in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi - only later. And, because there are fewer blacks in Arkansas - may stay for longer time..

P.S. By 2007-08 Democratic caucus in Arkansas legislature was, probably, more conservative then in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Again - because of considerably smaller number of blacks, including - black legislators, who moved Democratic caucuses in these states left...

[smoltchanov]

3rd Democrat seems ready to switch in the Arkansas State House of Representatives. Doesn't seem to be any leadership amongst the Democrats to stop the bleeding.

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2016/12/07/another-party-switch-rep-joe-jett-cagey-on-rumors

Jett is one of 5 "conservative Democrats" in Arkansas House i  mentioned, so, really, it won't be big surprise...

[smoltchanov]

Hopefully someone like Stephanie Flowers runs for Governor. She seems like a very nice lady.

And she will lose by a landslide...

[smoltchanov]

Hopefully someone like Stephanie Flowers runs for Governor. She seems like a very nice lady.

And she will lose by a landslide...

Yes, but better a principled loss than a corrupted victory.

Disagree. I like to win and i would run to win only. If a very conservative Democrat can win - let be it! Btw, he will be in any case less conservative then republican candidate. Never understood running "for the sake of principle"....