If the 2010 elections stand as a political earthquake then the ground is still shaking in Georgia.
Democrats were routed in elections for federal and state offices in Georgia and since the election seven state legislators have switched affiliation from the Democratic to the Republican party to maintain relevance, influence, and political viability going into 2012.
The latest switcher? Ashley Bell, a former National President of the College Democrats of America, and current Commissioner for Hall County, Georgia. Also, Hall is just 30 years old and African-American.
His reasoning:
“I always thought of myself as a conservative,” Bell said. “After I got elected, I realized I was more conservative than I thought, when actually having to make tough decisions about what to do with people’s tax dollars and being a steward of public trust.”
Bell said he feels the Democratic Party has become more liberal in recent years, making the Republican Party a better match for his ideals.
“It’s a large party and I definitely fit comfortably in the conservative wing of the Republican Party,” Bell said.
There’s reason to suspect that Bell’s motives are not pure, despite his protestations otherwise. In addition to his national prominence as President of the College Democrats of America, Bell was a prominent Georgia supporter of John Edwards and John Kerry in 2004, has run for office multiple times as a Democrat in recent years, and endorsed the Democratic candidate for Governor of Georgia earlier this year (who lost).
In fact, in 2004, Bell encouraged John Kerry to “be a hero” in order to inspire a new era of progressive movement activism:
To reach young people, President Kerry would need to take his message to the people. Much as Martin Luther King Jr. traveled the country to drum up support for his 1963 March On Washington, President Kerry could lend his imprimatur and authority to a March for a People’s Agenda. A grass-roots campaign launched in targeted areas would help in getting Congress’ attention and support, one member at a time. The potential to reset the tone in Washington, to rewrite the books on progressivism by having a massive grass-roots movement led by the commander in chief, would give America a chance to wrap its arms around principled progressive leadership.
Perhaps Bell is telling the truth about the reality of his conservative politics and his feeling increasingly unwelcome in the Democratic Party. It’s not inconceivable, and he’s not the only African-American legislator in Georgia who has switched parties post-midterms. However, the symbolism of Bell’s switch is powerful, especially given his youth, the larger context of the Obama presidency, and the overwhelmingly Democratic leanings of African-American voters in Georgia (and, generally, everywhere).
I can’t help but be left with the suspicion that political ambition played an important background role in Bell’s decision. Party-switching has become something of a distinctive artifact of Southern politics in recent decades with primarily older, white southern Democrats switching to the GOP to allow them to hold onto conservative, republican-leaning districts in the face of a rising GOP regional tide. Bell’s move strikes me as more than mere self-protection. The arc of Bell’s career so far suggests he is a man who has, at the very least, hurried aspirations to high statewide office in Georgia. The increasing non-viability of Democratic candidates in statewide contests in Georgia combined with the added burden any black Democrat might bring to a statewide candidacy, must have weighed on his mind at some point. Bell must have perceived that the only way to statewide office (by which I mean “Governor”) in Georgia is through the GOP.
As a matter of political philosophy and ideology I think this is fairly awful business, but I find myself, if not admiring, then awed by the brazenness of Bell’s display of naked ambition. In a way, Bell is representative of the newest generation of black elected officials — much less anchored to older-style liberalism, less loyal to the Democratic party, and with greater expectations about one’s prospects to be politically successful with mainstream and predominantly white electorates. After watching Democratic gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis failure to reconcile Democratic affiliations with the need to sell himself to a conservative statewide electorate in Alabama, who’s to say that Bell is wrong, as cynical as it may be, to exploit an opportunity to advance?
