How Republican is Steve Southerland?

Has anyone else noticed that Steve Southerland spends a lot of time telling us what a "conservative" he is?  In case you haven't visited his campaign website, the top banner literally says he is a Conservative Republican.  This made me wonder why he is trying soooooooo hard to make sure everyone knows he's a conservative Republican.  And if he's cornering the market on being the conservative candidate, where does that leave the other Republicans vying to run against Rep. Allen Boyd?  I think there's a tiny little possibility that Mr. Southerland feels like he has something to prove, what with being a registered Democrat as recently as 2002.  I wonder...did he vote for Clinton?  Did he vote for Al Gore in 2000?  I can't, of course, say who he voted for because I don't know.  I can, however, tell you that he donated to Rep. Allen Boyd's campaign in the past...you know back when he was a Democrat - before he morphed into this uber conservative candidate.   Come to think of it...if he registered to vote in 1984 as a Democrat and didn't become a Republican until 2002...yeah, it's now 2010...so that means he spent WAY more of his voting years as a Democrat than as a Republican!  Yep, 18 years as a Democrat and only 8 years as a Republican...I can see why he feels like he has something to prove.