In the News
Five Ala. judges become Democrats for 2010 election
July 20, 2009
[Associated Press, Phil Rawls, 7/18/09]
Five Republican judges in Alabama switched to the Democratic Party on Friday, signaling a turnaround for a party that saw several judges go to the GOP in the 1990s.
The executive board of the Alabama Democratic Party voted Friday in Montgomery to accept four Jefferson County judges and one Montgomery County judge into the party so they can run as Democrats in 2010.
The Jefferson County party-switchers are Circuit Judges Dan King and Virginia Vinson and District Judges Eric Fancher and Sheldon Watkins. The party switcher from Montgomery County is Circuit Judge William Shashy.
"In a Deep South state like Alabama, it's significant to have this kind of switch," Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said.
The executive board also voted to accept Johnny Ford of Tuskegee, who had been Alabama's only black Republican legislator since Reconstruction. That will allow Ford to run for the state Senate next year as a Democrat.
King said he agreed to be a Republican when Republican Gov. Fob James appointed him to a vacant judgeship in Bessemer in 1997. He said he came from a long line of Democrats and finally decided to make the switch because his philosophy was more in keeping with the Democratic Party.
"I like everyone to come into court on equal footing and have a fair chance," King said.
"Sometimes I felt like there was a business pressure when I was a Republican."
Turnham said all five judges told the executive board that their temperaments and philosophies were more aligned with the Democratic Party.
For Turnham, it was one of his biggest days as a leader of Alabama's party.
"I had been party chairman for about two weeks in 1995 when 10 Jefferson County judges got together and decided to become Republicans. Now 14 years later, the pendulum has swung back," he said.
Jefferson and Montgomery counties have large black populations, and Democratic candidates have enjoyed success in recent years.
State Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard said none of the judges contacted him before switching, but they were responding to changing demographics and voting trends in their counties.
He downplayed the party switching, noting that more than 150 Democratic officials at the state and county level in Alabama had become Republicans since the early 1990s.
"I'll take our numbers over theirs any day," he said.
Ford was originally elected to the Legislature as a Democrat, but he left in 2003 to become the first black Republican legislator in Alabama since Reconstruction.