UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A CNN viewer wants to know: how can Senator James Jeffords of Vermont legally switch to become an independent?</s>WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's easy to switch parties in Vermont, because Vermont is one of many states that do not register voters by party. So, all Senator Jeffords has to do as a Vermonter is stop calling himself a Republican and start calling himself an independent. In the Senate, all he has to do is stop attending the Republican caucus. What he intends to do is attend the Democratic Party caucus as an independent, but then he will vote with the Democrats on organizational matters, which means he will vote to make Tom Daschle, a Democrat, the leader of the Senate. Now, Jeffords was elected as a Republican in Vermont, of course, just last year, and some Republicans in Vermont may feel that he is betraying them by leaving the Republican Party.</s>SKIP VALLEE, VERMONT RNC CHAIRMAN: There is a tremendous sense of betrayal. Now I have said publicly that he should follow Phil Gramm's, you know, lead.</s>SCHNEIDER: Indeed, back in 1983, when then-Representative Phil Gramm of Texas switched from Democrat to Republican, he resigned his seat in the House of Representatives and ran in a special election to reclaim his seat as a Republican, which he did. But most senators and representatives who change parties don't bother to resign their seat and run again, because their argument is "the voters elected me, not my party," and the law certainly has no problem with that.
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