When word of Jim Bradford's defection from the South Dakota Democratic Party to the Republican Party came in Tuesday, many in the newsroom were surprised.

Perhaps the most shocking part of Bradford's defection isn't that he was making the move from the state's minority party to the majority, but that he was doing it in one of the Democrats strongest areas of the state, District 27. Historically, voters on the reservation lean to the left.

However, Bradford's heartbreaking loss in the state Senate primary this year against incumbent Theresa Two Bulls no doubt helped push him across the aisle where even picking up a handful of votes from the few traditional Republicans that may exist in District 27 might ensure him victory.

The thing about party switching is, it might be unusual to folks in South Dakota and, in particular, District 27, but there's a long history of it in United States politics.

Here's a short list of some influential types that have crossed the political aisle to find political success.

1. Ronald Reagan

It's hard to think of the father of the modern conservative movement as starting out life as a Democrat, but considering his beginnings, it shouldn't be.

Reagan's early career in radio and movies certainly helped shape some of his earlier political leanings. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and was a longtime admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.

However, the presidential candidacies of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a relative centrist, and the Eisenhower's vice president, Richard Nixon, moved Reagan closer to the Republican party.

When Reagan was fired in 1962 for giving speeches his employer, GE, deemed too conservative and politically motivated, the transformation was solidified. Reagan switched to the Republican Party, uttering those famous words, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me."

Reagan went on to work for arch conservative and the godfather of the conservative movement, Barry Goldwater, in the 1964 presidential campaign. It was then that he found his true voice in politics, delivering the "Time for Choosing" speech for Goldwater.

A few year's later, he was elected the governor of California, and the rest is history.

2. Strom Thurmond

An affirmed racist who started his career as a Democrat, Thurmond moved over to the Republican party in 1964.

The South Carolina politician rose to prominence on the national scene in 1948 when he ran for the presidency for the Dixiecrats. But his real influence began when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1954. Other than a two year period in the mid 1950s, Thurmond served in the Senate for nearly a half century, rising to become one of the most powerful politicians in the country.

His popularity was remarkable. In 1954, he became the only person ever elected to the U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate.

However, he was equally despised, largely for his staunch stance against Civil Rights. It was Thurmond who recorded the longest fllibuster ever conducted by a single Senator, speaking for more than 24 hours against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The bill passed, but Strom didn't until 2003. He was 100 years old when he left office earlier that year, the oldest person ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.

Thurmond's views on race softened somewhat over the decades, but he wasn't apologetic about his long held stance on segregation and state's rights. Shortly after his death, it was publicly revealed that he had a an illegitimate daughter of African-American heritage, Essie Mae Washington-Williams.

A movie script could hardly do justice to the story.

3. Elizabeth Dole

It seems improbable that the wife of former vice presidential and presidential candidate Bob Dole, and as someone whom was once considered a presidential contender herself - could have ever been anything but a Republican.

But Dole got her start in politics while employed by the Federal Trade Commission when she campaigned for the John Kennedy-Lyndon Johnson presidential ticket in 1960. She would later go on to work in the Johnson administration.

However, whereas the Johnson administration came to a sudden end, Dole's work at the White House did not. She worked as a deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon for Consumer Affairs. In 1973, the Republican president appointed her to the FTC Commission.

In 1975, she moved across the aisle to the Repubican party, the same year she married powerful Republican politico Bob Dole, who ran as Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976.

Regardless the party affiliation, Dole has proved to be a political force, most recently serving as a North Carolina senator. And before that, she worked in President Reagan's cabinet as Secretary of Transportation, the first woman to ever hold the post. She has also served as Secretary of Labor in President George H.W. Bush's cabinet.

And beyond that, her causes have been wide-ranging, including her efforts to raise the drinking age to 21, which was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of South Dakota v. Dole.

4. Hillary Rodham Clinton

You can blame Wellesley College for Hillary's transformation into one of the highest profile Democrats of current day politics. Up until enrolling there in 1965, the young Hillary was an active backer of the conservative Republican movement.

Raised in a conservative home, Clinton's first noted political action came when she was 13 and she helped canvass parts of Chicago after the hotly contested Kennedy-Nixon presidential election of 1960.

She later volunteered to campaign for the godfather of the conservative movement Barry Goldwater in his 1964 presidential election.

A year later, it was off to Wellesley College, where she majored in political science and served as president of the Wellesley Young Republicans. During her time there, she became involved in the 1968 presidential election by working for Nelson Rockefeller's efforts to gain the Republican nomination. However, upset at what she believed was Richard Nixon's unfair messages against Rockefeller, she left the Republican party.

Dedicating herself after graduation from Wellesley in 1969 to law school at Yale, she continued community service and political activism through various roles. In 1971, she began dating future husband, Bill Clinton, and in 1972, both worked on the presidential campaign of South Dakotan Democrat George McGovern.

And, like Reagan, the rest is history.

5. The entire town council in Lyndhurst, New Jersey

On October 24, 2007, the entire town council from Lyndhurst, N.J., switched party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.

The unprecedented shift came largely because of a state political move, not a local one, in which Democratic state Senator Paul Sarlo managed to persuade the largely apolitical town board to switch allegiance, thus undercutting efforts by his republican opponent, who was from Lyndhurst.