By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
The Alabama Republican Party has announced that yet another rural Alabama Democratic Party office holder has abandoned their party to join the Republican Party.
According to the statement, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead and members of the House and Senate will join together in welcoming Crenshaw County Probate Judge, Jim Perdue, to the Alabama Republican Party on Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 10:30am on the front steps of the Alabama Statehouse.
Since the demise of the Whig Party the Alabama Democratic Party has dominated politics in rural Alabama. Alabama Democrats controlled the Court Houses and the Sheriffs’ offices even when those counties were voting for Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, and two Bushes. That legacy appears to be fading into history. Alabama Republicans took both houses of the Alabama State Legislature for the first time since the 1870s and rural majority White rural counties joined with their long Republican voting suburban brethren in rejecting Alabama Democrats in 2010. On Wednesday Probate Judge Jim Perdue will join the growing ranks of conservative Democrats who are becoming conservative Republicans.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead said in a written statement when a previous officeholder, Chris McCool switched parties, “President Barack Obama and Alabama Democrat Party Chairman Mark Kennedy have taken the Democrat Party so far to the left that few Alabamians can identify themselves as Democrats any longer.” “It is hard for elected officials with a conservative philosophy to remain in the Democrat Party.”
According to original reporting by the ‘Andalusia Star News,’ Perdue has been the Probate Judge since since Jan of 2002. Perdue has also been chairman of the Industrial Development Board. Prior to that Perdue worked for seven years with the Federal Reserve Banks in Atlanta, Miami, and Birmingham. He returned to Luverne in 1980 to buy the family business, Perdue-Folmar Company, which built aluminum buildings, awnings, carports and convenience store canopies in Alabama and other states. Perdue has been the President of the Crenshaw County Chamber of Commerce, the vice-chairman of the State Private Industry Council, the chairman of the Alabama Probate Judges Association Legislative Committee, and is an active member of the Luverne Rotary Club, the South Central Alabama Development Commission, and the President of the Crenshaw County Historical Society.
Chairman Armistead said, “More than 50 conservative Democrats have now switched from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party since I became Chairman.”
