The chattering classes will be clucking this afternoon about Alabama Representative Parker Griffith’s defection to the Republican Party. While newsworthy, this is nothing surprising.
For starters, given the economy as well as a host of other factors, Democrats face an uphill challenge in 2010, with the consensus being the loss some of seats in the House and Senate. Retirements, party switches, and the like are regular occurrences at this point of the cycle. Furthermore, Griffith is a Freshman, and as such is much more susceptible to a fickle electorate (note that he won in 2008 in an uncontested race, and substantially outspent his rival). You’ll also note that Obama lost AL-5 to McCain by 23%, and that Griffith beat his Republican rival Wayne Parker (name recognition/confusion much?) by a mere 3.6%, with the seat being previously held by a Democrat (data via CQ).
