Real Dictionary

carpetbagger
countable noun: If you call someone a carpetbagger, you disapprove of them because they are trying to become a politician in an area which is not their home, simply because they think they are more likely to succeed there.

carpetbagger in American English
any of the Northern politicians or adventurers who went South to take advantage of unsettled conditions after the Civil War
noun: a Northerner who went to the South after the Civil War and became active in Republican politics, esp. so as to profiteer from the unsettled social and political conditions of the area during Reconstruction

carpetbagger in British English
noun: a politician who seeks public office in a locality where he or she has no real connections