
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994                   TAG: 9411100082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

ALABAMA'S CLOSET REPUBLICAN BOLTS DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Democrat, has acted like a Republican for the last two years, opposing President Clinton at nearly every turn and in the process becoming the most popular politician in his state.

On Wednesday, Shelby stopped just acting like a Republican and became one. His defection from the Democrats swelled the GOP margin in the incoming Senate to 53-47.

Shelby said he was frustrated after 16 years of trying to find a place among Democrats as a Southern conservative. So he said he decided instead to join ``a party of hope for America and not a party of dependency.''

If the Democrats had hung onto a majority of the Senate, Shelby admitted he might not have changed.

``I might have. I might not have. That's a moot question,'' he said.

First elected to the House of Representatives in 1978, Shelby became a senator in 1986. As one of the Senate's most conservative Democrats, he has openly, if not gleefully, opposed Clinton's initiatives, starting with the president's economic program in 1993.

``I was the first one to recognize that the tax man was coming again,'' Shelby said at a Capitol news conference where he announced his party switch.

Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas, the GOP Senate leader, and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, head of the Republican Senatorial Committee, welcomed Shelby and invited other conservative Democrats to follow.

``We'll be happy to accept other applications,'' Dole joked.

The last sitting senator to switch was Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who left the Democrats in 1964.

by CNB