Noble Ellington - Party Bolt

Party Bolt

On December 9, 2010, Ellington announced that he was likely to switch to Republican affiliation to seek renewed membership in the state House of Representatives in 2011. Three other Democrats announced that same month that they have switched affiliation, John Alario of Westwego, Fred H. Mills, Jr., of St. Martinville, and Simone B. Champagne of Iberia Parish, following the departure of John R. Smith of Leesville two years earlier. Ellington and Smith had been the top recipients of legislative campaign contributions from Koch Industries and its subsidiaries in the state, in the election cycles before their switch. On December 17, 2010, Ellington made the switch official, giving the Louisiana Republican Party its first majority in the Louisiana House since the Reconstruction era.

Ellington explained that this party switch is "historically significant, but the truth is I've been a conservative for my entire career, so it won't affect the way I vote. . . . I found myself farther and farther away from what has become the liberal philosophy of the national party. 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."

Then Speaker Tucker, who had opposed Ellington's committee chairmanship in 2008, said he is "excited to have Noble in the party and ecstatic about holding the majority. We as Republicans can continue to push for smaller, more efficient government, and we have the numbers to pass legislation that can do that if we stick together. . . . It's incredible that when I started in the House that we have more than doubled our numbers and indicative of where the state in going. It's also a tribute to those who preceded us to helped build the party in this state, in particular David Vitter."

Louisiana Republican Chairman Roger Villere issued this statement on Ellington's defection: "For more than one hundred 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 Representative Ellington's decision to become the 53rd Republican in the House gives the GOP our first controlling majority in that body since Reconstruction. This is a great and historic day for the Republican Party of Louisiana and I'm pleased to welcome Representative Ellington to the new conservative majority in the House."