As previously noted, four veteran Democratic congressmen in districts where Republicans seemed to be launching serious challenges have announced that they are retiring rather than running for reelection. Now comes the news that Congressman Parker Griffith of the 5th district of Alabama is leaving the Democratic Party and becoming a Republican. Griffith has voted against just about every one of the Democrats’ high-priority bills this year, and as a physician he has been especially critical of the Democrats’ health care legislation. Apparently he has decided that his chances of reelection are better as a Republican than as a Democrat.
The 5th district of Alabama covers the northern part of the state and includes fast-growing Huntsville with its NASA facilities and most of the state’s Tennessee River frontage. It has never elected a Republican congressman before; one issue that long benefited Democrats here was support of the Tennessee Valley Authority. But Democrats have had some close calls. Democrat Bud Cramer, a 10-year district attorney in Huntsville’s Madison County, was first elected in 1990 when 14-year incumbent Ronnie Flippo ran unsuccessfully for governor. Cramer won the general election that year by 67%-33%, but in the heavily Republican year of 1994 he beat Republican Wayne Parker by only 50.48%-49.47%. Two years later he beat Parker 56%-42% and had no trouble winning relection thereafter from 1998 to 2006. In 2008 he retired to become a Washington lobbyist, and Griffith beat Wayne Parker, once again the Republican nominee, by a 52%-48% margin, even as John McCain was carrying the district 61%-38%.
