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FEWER 'YELLOW DOG' DEMOCRATIC VOTERS IN ALABAMA: AU EXPERTS SAYS

AUBURN -- Alabama's label as a solid "Yellow Dog Democrat" state has a faded as more and more voters are identifying themselves as Republicans or Independents.

"Yellow Dog Democrat got its name because people would say if a yellow dog was running as a Democrat, the dog would get their vote," says Southern historian Wayne Flynt, a Distinguished University Professor at Auburn University. "They pulled one lever in the voting booth -- Democrat."

Susan Fillippeli, an assistant professor of communication at AU who studies political elections, says Alabamians have not changed so much as the two major political parties.

"What has changed is the party label, but what has not changed are Alabamians," she said. "Alabama has been voting Republican in presidential elections for 30 years, by and large," she said. "It is true, however, that until the late 1980s and into the early 90s, the Yellow Dog Democrats held sway."

Fillippeli said Alabamians have always been conservative voters, adding, "In the times of the Civil War, the Democrats were the conservative party."

Alabama voters began abandoning straight party ticket voting as early as 1928, when Al Smith, a Catholic, was the Democratic nominee for president, said Flynt. "Alabama very nearly voted Republican in that election," he said. "He was about as an unpleasant a candidate and you could find and a lot of leading Alabama Democrats opposed him. It was the first great breach of the Yellow Dog Democrats."

Another big change was World War II and how it affected voting patterns.

"After World War II, a lot of Alabamians moved into the middle class and more voted Republican," said Flynt.

Alabamians returned to the Democratic Party, but in the 1948 presidential elections "things were awry with Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats," said Flynt.

"What actually happened was that Harry Truman's name was taken off the Democratic ticket and Strom Thurmond's name was put in," Flynt said. "Strom Thurmond co-opted the Democratic Party in Alabama. Truman's name was listed under a separate party under the donkey."

Flynt said this also happened in 1968 when George C. Wallace ran for president as an independent.

"Wallace co-opted the Democratic rooster," he said. "In Alabama, the state Democratic Party makes the rules, not the national party,"

The next big change in Alabama politics came in 1952 and 1956, Flynt said.

"(Dwight) Eisenhower was very popular in Alabama, and in 1952 Eisenhower carried Birmingham and he carried Montgomery in 1956," he said.

The 1960s and 1970 brought racial divide and George Wallace, which led to a lot of white Yellow Dog Democrats pulling out of the party -- halfway at least, Flynt said. "They voted for Wallace and his American Independent Party in 1968."

Fillippeli says the change can also be traced back to the Barry Goldwater's unsuccessful campaign in 1964. "Goldwater was unsuccessful, but because of him the roots of conservative came to Alabama.

Those roots, she said, took hold during the Ronald Reagan era in the 1980s, adding, "Reagan carried the revolution to the state and local election."

"In the last three election cycles, Alabama has emerged as a true two-party state," she added.

Flynt said while the term is rarely used anymore, there are still may Alabamians -- some say as many as 25 percent -- who pull the big lever for the Democratic ticket. And, numbers for Yellow Dog Republicans are increasing too, with as many as 12 to 15 percent of Alabamians voting the straight Republican ticket.

"But that still leaves the majority of Alabamians -- about 60 percent -- who don't vote straight tickets anymore," Flynt added. "A lot of Alabamians are independent and don't identify themselves as Republican or Democrat."

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