The strong showing of Republicans in recent local, state and national elections has created a GOP tidal wave that is sweeping Catoosa and tempting Democrats to cross party lines, according to some local officials.

Phil Summers, a Democrat in his 13th year as Catoosa County sheriff, said the county’s standing as a Democratic stronghold has slipped.

“It’s more trendy to run as Republican now,” he said. “Ten years ago you had to run as a Democrat if you wanted to get elected in Catoosa County.

“With the population growth over the last 10 years, the majority of people who have moved in are Republican,” he said. “It’s a sign of the times in not just Catoosa County but Georgia itself.”

Summers said that although the county does have an organized Democratic Party, activity and interest has decreased tremendously in recent years.

The sheriff said he considers himself a conservative Democrat, but he does not have a strong allegiance to any one political party. He said all local judicial system offices should be non-partisan.

“I don’t just serve Democrats or Republicans,” he said. “I serve the people of Catoosa County. We don’t make laws. We deal with people on an individual basis.”

Mark Fletcher, the lone Democrat on the Catoosa County Board of Commissioners, said there seems to be a number of Democrats who plan to switch parties next year to take advantage of GOP popularity. He said the Democratic slide started with controversies surrounding the Clinton administration and the spiking approval rating of President George W. Bush.

Fletcher said the 2000 race for Catoosa’s District 3 commission seat, when incumbent and Democrat Aubrey Greeson was defeated by Republican candidate Burk Hale, is a prime example of growing Republican loyalty in the county. He said Greeson, a county educator for more than 30 years, had better name recognition, but the late commissioner pulled off the upset because many ballot-casters voted straight Republican.

GOP stronghold

Catoosa County’s entire local delegation in the Georgia General Assembly is Republican.

Bill Clark, who served the county through two-terms as a Republican state representative, said that when he first ran for the office in 1996 people said it was foolish to run on a Republican ticket. When he ran again in 1998 and won, he had a well-organized, polished opponent, but by the late 1990s Republican allegiance was too strong for the Democratic challenger to overcome.

Clark said surveys of county voters show 25 percent of voters consider themselves Democrats and an equal number identify themselves as Republicans, but of the remaining 50 percent, the majority tend to vote conservative and cast ballots for Republicans.

Catoosa Coroner Vanita Hullander said she was born and raised a Democrat. However, party affiliation should not be significant in a local election below legislative levels, she said.

“I think with anything you’re going to have shifts and changes,” she said. “Politics have gotten so confusing I don’t know if anybody knows what they are anymore. I think the crux of it is people are voting now more for the person.”

Fletcher said a popular Democrat president could shift party strength in the county again. Like Sheriff Summers, Fletcher said he does not put a lot of stock in one party over another. He considers himself a “Zell Miller-type” Democrat.

In the past, the Democratic Party stood more for the working man and average American citizen, but in recent years the national Democratic Party’s views have grown more liberal and floated away from what Southerners identify as Democratic values, the commissioner said.

“I agree with the saying ‘The people didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left them,’” Fletcher said. “The Republican Party we have in the South now is more like what the Democratic Party used to be.”

Fletcher’s commission seat is up for election next year, but he remains undecided about seeking another term. If he does run again, he will remain a Democrat, he said.

Clark said there are many county Republicans who are Republican in name only, and the decline of Democrats is due to intensified GOP efforts and vision.

“We saw the parade and got out in front of it,” he said.

According to the Catoosa County Registrar’s Office, nine of the county’s 20 elected officials — excluding the five non-partisan members of the Catoosa County Board of Education — are registered Republicans. Of that number, five of the six judicial system officials are Democrats