Posted on 12/08/2010 6:23:27 PM PST by LdSentinal
BATON ROUGE - State Sen. John Alario, a former two-time House speaker and a fixture in state politics for nearly four decades, is now a Republican.
After weeks of saying he was likely to abandon his Democratic allegiance by the end of the year, Alario quietly made it official late last week.
"I just casually went in and took care of it," Alario, of Westwego, said. "I had been pondering it for some time and didn't want to make a big deal of it."
With Alario's switch -- and the recent defection of Sen. John Smith of Leesville from the Democrats to the GOP -- the partisan balance in the Senate now stands at 20 Democrats and 18 Republicans, with one vacancy.
Republicans recently gained a plurality in the 105-member House, 51-50, for the first time in modern Louisiana history.
Alario said his switch was motivated by dissatisfaction with the national Democratic Party, which has seen many of its conservative Blue Dog members replaced by Republicans in recent years.
"I'm not angry with my local Democratic friends," Alario said. "I have an issue with the national Democratic Party and the direction it's going."
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Yeah!..another queer for the money...
I’m STRAIGHT NOW!!....VOTE FOR ME!
This is bad news. What we don’t need are more liberals in the Republican Party. If they are Blue Dogs, we’re better off with them on the other side.
Can you say, “Political expediency?”
They will vote as they always have, don't trust them.
State Sen. John Alario is one of the more “legendary” members of the LA legislature, a former two-time House Speaker now vying to become the next Senate President.
“The only reason these libs are joining the republican party is so they can have a say in drawing congressional districts that helps them keep their seat.”
This is often true. But it doesn’t apply to Alario. The R’s are still a minority party after he changed parties. This is more likely to cause him to be redistricted out.
“two-time”? Really? You didn’t edit that in, did you?
John Anders is related to me by marriage to my Catholic Louisiana kinfolks in Concordia and Tensas parish
why in the hell he is still a frigging Democrat confounds me
Hi John....nice wedding last weekend eh...it was good to see ya...if he’s lurking...I know he does at times
The ‘Rat Party loses yet another of its conservative members.
Some down here aren’t viewing this particular switch favorably:
http://thehayride.com/2010/11/alario-seriously/
http://thehayride.com/2010/12/please-throw-this-one-back/
Heh, I actually remember the Republican Party’s “The Alarios” slogan.
It does make good PR, if nothing else. If he’s that bad, I expect he’ll be primaried.
Please, tell him “Hi”, and “thanks” from me, and why the heck did he wait so long to do the right thing? lol
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