2011 Promises a slew of Party Switchers to Republican in one Deep South State

"Several [State] Senators" to switch says LA GOP Chair

From Eric Dondero:

Louisiana has seen 3 legislators switch to Republican since the election, two State Senators and one Representative.

Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere recently spoke to a gathering of Republican Women and made the following comments (via Bayou Buzz Dec. 30):

"I fully expect that several Senators will decide to switch parties in the coming months, giving us a majority," he told the assembled lady-activists. Currently, [Noble] Ellington's switch gives the Republicans a 53-52 edge in the House. Democrats still control the state Senate with 20 seats compared to 18 for Republicans.

Chairman Villere said of the switch. "For more than 100 years the Louisiana House of Representatives has remained under Democrat control, but today that has all come to an end. In just three short years a 16-seat Democrat majority has been erased and Rep. Ellington's decision to become the 53rd Republican in the House gives the GOP our first controlling majority in that body since Reconstruction."

Ellington said recently:

"I found myself farther and farther away from what has become the liberal philosophy of the national party," Ellington continued. "My way of thinking, which falls along a more conservative line, has been shrinking within the party. At least nationally, the Republican Party seems to fit my philosophy more than the current Democratic Party."