Who gets elected more? Conservative Democrats or Liberal Republicans??

I am posing this question to the ATS community:

Who tends to get elected more often: Conservative Democrats or Liberal Republicans?

Yesterday, in the Louisiana Senate race, Mary Landrieu (lifetime Democrat) was re-elected. Her opponent, John Kennedy, was previously a Democrat, however switched party affiliation in August of 2007. Throughout the campaign, Landrieu (rightly so) called Kennedy a "political opportunist" and used this move as an example of how he flip-flops on issues. It was widely known that the reason Kennedy became a Republican was so that he could run against Landrieu, so calling him a "political opportunist" is certainly appropriate.

Washington Post article on this move: LA Senate: Kennedy Switches Parties

That article also mentioned that one of our gubernatorial candidates (Walter Boasso) did the same thing last year. Boasso switched from Republican to Democrat to run for governor, and ended up losing to Bobby Jindal.

The outcome of the LA Senate race was somewhat close, with Landrieu receiving approximately 52% of the vote. Between Kennedy losing last night, and Boasso losing last year, it looks to me like voters aren't really "buying it" when a politician changes parties.

Both of those candidates definitely changed parties because they didn't think they could win in their party of origin. I doubt, however, that someone would join a political party if they didn't agree with at least some of that side's platform. Kennedy has described himself as being somewhat conservative in the past, but I don't know about Boasso. He very well may have been a kind of liberal Republican.

What I am trying to figure out is: who has a better chance of getting elected? A Republican with leftist leanings, or a Democrat who is more on the conservative side of things?

I am not looking for arguments involving the 2008 Presidential election. There are already countless threads on that, and this is not one of them. However, if there are comments about this most recent election that might answer my question, they are welcome. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this, and I am curious to know how people with these leanings have fared in your local elections.

Please discuss amongst yourselves.

Thank you to all!