did Nixon drive certain republicans out of the party?

[freepcrusher]

One thing I've noticed is how there have been a lot more D to R turncoats than R to D turncoats. But of the few R to D turncoats that I know of, a lot of them happened during the Nixon administration:

1969 - John Lindsay, former Republican congressman and current mayor of New York, loses renomination and is forced to run on the Liberal line. In 1971, he joins the Democratic Party.

1970 - Floyd Haskell, the Speaker of the Colorado House, switches to the democrats. In 1972, he unseats incumbent senator Gordon Allott.

1972 - Ogden Reid, congressman from Westchester County, bolts from the Republicans to the Democrats

1973 - a few weeks into his fourth term, Donald Riegle, a Flint congressman, switches to the Democrats.

Do you think this is a coincidence or do you think that it was mostly Nixon's fault?

[tpfkaw]

A coincidence.  In Lindsay's case, the man was literally a borderline-Communist.

Edit: There were certainly plenty of Republicans who left the party because of the Nixon administration, especially after Watergate, but not too many elected officials.