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March 28, 2004
Sonny Perdue
An addendum to the party switching post earlier. One thing I can say about Perdue is that he did switch the right way. He waited until the second year of that term and then announced his switch right before the campaign season started. Of course the voters ratified it, incumbents are hard to beat.
When you contrast that to the horrid power play Perdue himself pulled off in the state Senate after his election as governor, there is a lot of merit in his original party switch. Except for when you remember that Perdue thought (and promised) 5 other Democrats would be joining him and that would have flipped the state Senate then (and we'd have never gotten it back).
One thing for the rural Georgia boys to remember is that timing is everything when you switch parties. Some of them think they'll be in the legislature and also chairman of whatever committee for as long as they're alive. The new majority party loves a party switcher when it gives them the majority (as in the Senate), but if the majority has already changed (let's say the Republicans win one in the House) then they couldn't care less if you join the party.
As far as Governor Perdue goes, just remember that Republicans and Democrats alike were surprised by that one. I realize that by October of '02 some people knew Perdue had a chance of winning, but back in March of '01 when these campaigns for statewide offices started the Isaksons, Collins, Kingstons, Chambliss's, Norwoods, Westmorelands and Johnsons of the state thought Roy's re-election was a sure thing.
So giving Perdue credit for some grand strategy started way back in 1998 when he switched parties in the Senate and ending in his election to the Governor's office ignores the many unknown variables, pleasant and unpleasant surprises along the way.
Posted by Chris at March 28, 2004 04:07 PM
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