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Luther Hodges Switches Parties
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Edited | Chronicler Jun 29, 2006 06:42pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Monday, August 6, 2001 12:40:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Twenty-three years ago, Luther Hodges Jr. was the Democrats' great hope for knocking off their boogeyman -- Republican Sen. Jesse Helms.
Hodges had one of the best-known names in Tar Heel politics. His daddy had been governor and John F. Kennedy's commerce secretary. And the younger Hodges was one of North Carolina's most prominent business executives as chairman of what is now Bank of America in Charlotte.
Not only was Hodges not the Democrats' dragon-slayer, today, he is no longer even a Democrat.
Now living in the suburbs of Phoenix, Hodges recently changed his registration to the Republican Party, and he would like to tell the home folks why.
"People get divorced, change churches, but they won't change political parties," Hodges said.
Hodges said he had been drifting toward the GOP for years. Although he voted for Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992, he supported Republicans Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000.
The Clinton presidency was the deciding point, Hodges said.
Hodges said Clinton seemed to be driven by political polls and fund raising rather than by any set of principles. He said Clinton was symptomatic of the Democratic Party as a whole.
"All through the last four years of the Clinton administration, I did see the Democratic Party nationally changing," Hodges said in a recent telephone interview. "I really feel education is being ruined by organized labor. I think the trial lawyers ... are the real backbone of the Democratic Party."
Hodges said that while he once saw the Democratic Party as the vehicle for building a more racially harmonious society, he now views the Republicans as the country's best hope. He said too many African-American leaders are stuck in the racial politics of the past. |
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