Former Democratic congressman Artur Davis, who has been a
thorn in the side of Democrats in the aftermath of his loss in the 2010
Alabama gubernatorial primary, is a man without a political party.In
an interview with The Fix, Davis openly speculated about running for
office as an independent or even a Republican. In both cases, he
suggested his decision not to make the switch has as much to do with the
difficulties involved as any desire he has to remain a Democrat.

“I’ve heard some people at the national level encouraging me to run as
an independent for my old office,” Davis said, referring to the
congressional seat he left to run for governor. But he said his home
state makes it more difficult than almost any other state to run as an
independent. “Alabama is not friendly to independent candidacies.”

Davis said he doesn’t identify with a political party in his current
role as an increasingly vocal pundit. He caused a splash recently by
speaking out in favor of a voter ID law. Given that the Democratic Party
regards such laws as an attempt to disenfranchise black voters, having
an African-American former Democratic congressman espouse that view
wasn’t exactly helpful to the party’s cause.

This week, he wrote a piece for the conservative National Review Online suggesting Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-Neb.) retirement was due to “an exclusively liberal” Democratic Party.

Davis’s criticism of his party ramped up in the 2010 primary, when he carved out a more moderate persona. He wound up losing badly to the state’s agriculture commissioner, Ron Sparks, by 25 points. Sparks went on to defeat in the general election, and bad blood lingers between the two.

Davis has also recently contributed money to the campaigns of two Republicans, former congresswoman Heather Wilson, who is running for Senate in New Mexico, and Mississippi Gov.-elect Phil Bryant.

Davis
notes that he hasn’t had to register with a political party in either
state he has lived recently — Alabama or Virginia. And he said he
doesn’t need to officially make the switch unless he returns to elective
politics.After his 2010 loss, he suggested he was done with elective politics, but he doesn’t sound like he’s ready to close that door completely.

But it won’t happen in 2012; Davis said he will be a visiting fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics this coming semester.

“The
only way I would have to cross that threshold is if I decided to run
for office,” he said. “My recognition after losing the governor’s race
was I closed a bunch of doors that weren’t likely to be re-opened.”http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/former-democratic-rep-artur-davis-talks-party-switching/2011/12/30/gIQAmOKyQP_blog.html