11 Democrats Vote For GOP Speaker Candidate. . .

. . . And the party leaders are powerless to stop them.

Monday, on the opening day of the 2010 legislative session, the Georgia House of Representatives elected new officers. State Rep. Jan Jones of Alpharetta was elected Speaker Pro Tempore and Rep. David Ralston of Blue Ridge won election to the post of Speaker of the Georgia House.

The count was 116 votes for Republican Ralston and 58 votes for Democrat Calvin Smyre. AJC Political Insider Jim Galloway writes that eleven Democratic state representatives cast their ballots for David Ralston.

Maybe they did it in a spirit of bipartisanship, maybe they have legislation in the works. Maybe they like the guy. In any case, these are 11 Democrats who voted to make Republican David Ralston of Blue Ridge the new House speaker:

Ellis Black of Valdosta, Bob Bryant of Garden City, Amy Carter of Valdosta, Mike Cheokas of Americus, Bubber Epps of Dry Branch, Carol Fullerton of Albany, Gerald Greene of Cuthbert, Bob Hanner of Parrott, Kevin Levitas of Atlanta, Alan Powell of Hartwell, and Jay Shaw of Lakeland.

Galloway, Jim (2010-1-11). Democrats who voted for House Speaker David Ralston. Political Insider. Retrieved on 2010-1-12.

The House Democratic Caucus can't strip their caucus members of any committee assignments. The Democratic leadership can't delay the passage of bills important to a particular member. And House Democrats can't threaten to run someone against these errant Dems in the primary because, let's face it, the caucus needs to save every penny on knocking off Republicans. So aside from the usual complaints, there's not much that can be done about it.

That is all.