GOP gains in post-election party switches
Monday’s switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican by Georgia state Rep. Mike Cheokas is the latest in a series of similar party changes across the South. Since November 2, the GOP has gained 20 new seats in Southern state legislatures the easy way, from Democratic lawmakers switching to the Republican Party.
On Election Day, Southern Republicans gained 153 new state lawmakers; the post-election changes bring this total to a 173-seat gain. Thus, the partisan breakdown in Dixie’s legislatures in January 2012 will be 1201 Republican to 857 Democrats, a major shift in state-level political power in the region.
Nationwide, some 22 Democratic legislators switched to the GOP. The vast majority of them – 20 of the 22 – were in the South, putting the icing on the cake of a Republican surge in the South not seen since 1994 and earlier in the Reagan Era. In addition to the changes in the South, one state legislator each in Maine and South Dakota have also changed to the GOP since the election.
Southern Political Report
Magnolia Tribune
