Party Pooper

NC Rep. Tricia Cotham managed to make big news the same day Donald Trump was hauled into a criminal courtroom.

She joined a list of prominent, if not distinguished, North Carolina Democrats who switched parties – or loyalties.

They all say it’s about principle, but it’s always more about pique, personal ambition and a power grab.

The most famous switcher was Jesse Helms, who left the Democratic Party when it embraced civil rights. He became the US Senate’s leading racist for 30 years.

The 1984 Democratic primary for governor produced two switch-hitters.

Lt. Governor Jimmy Green lost the primary, then endorsed Republican Jim Martin. Governor Martin gave Green a do-nothing state job and a nice office.

Former Charlotte Mayor Eddie Knox also lost in the primary. He got mad because his long-time friend, Governor Jim Hunt, who was running for Senate, didn’t endorse him. Knox then showed up at a rally for Helms and Ronald Reagan.

Another Democrat who lost in that primary was Lauch Faircloth.

Faircloth – a long-time ally of Governors Hunt, Bob Scott and Terry Sanford – stayed a Democrat for a while. But he got mad when Sanford cut in front of him, ran for Senate in 1986 and won.

Faircloth switched parties and got his revenge by beating Sanford in 1992. In 1998, John Edwards unseated Faircloth.

(The 1984 primary had an all-star lineup. Rufus Edmisten won it, but lost in November. Other also-rans were Tom Gilmore, a former state representative from Guilford County who was another old friend of Hunt’s, and John Ingram, the colorful, maverick insurance commissioner. Both of them remained lifelong Democrats.)

Walter Jones Jr. served five terms in the NC House as a Democrat, from 1982 to 1992. He always wanted to succeed his father, long-time Congressman Walter Jones Sr.

Young Walter ran for his father’s congressional seat in 1992, but lost the Democratic primary. He switched parties, was elected in 1994 and served five terms in the House. He later split with the Republican Party over the Iraq war.

Now Cotham joins that political gallery.

Rise above politics? Some politicians rise above principle.