Ms. Harrop apparently is associated with the Providence, Rhode Island Journal. She may very well think her friends are “Republican-leaning” independents, but in that (very small) part of the country, that’s pretty much left of Joe Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, and Adolf Hitler.
I’m not sweating the loss of these two “Republican-leaning” independents.
I hear that Rhode Island has a Republican governor, who is not too bad, considering what part of the country he comes from.