Posted on 11/13/2010 7:00:00 AM PST by paul in cape
In a sign of things to come, perhaps the first in a wave of Democrats across the country to switch to Republican has begun. (OK maybe not the first, but you get the idea).
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A Democratic legislator from Aroostook County has announced that he has switched his affiliation to the Republican Party.
Michael Willette of Presque Isle, who was elected to a second term in the Legislature on Nov. 2 as a Democrat, told the Bangor Daily News on Friday that he has labored over his decision to switch since he couldn’t convince himself to support a tax reform proposal earlier this year that was supported almost exclusively by Democrats.
He also didn’t support other major Democrat-led initiatives: enactment of a 2008 law that allowed same-sex marriage as well as a bill that would have required businesses to offer paid sick time to employees during last year’s outbreak of the H1N1 flu. Neither measure nor the tax reform package ended up as law.
“It seemed like every time something major to the Democratic Party came up I just couldn’t vote for it,” said Willette during an interview Friday with the Bangor Daily News. “They were just bills that, to me, didn’t make sense and wouldn’t have worked for my district.”
Willette’s switch brings the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to 78 versus 72 Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at new.bangordailynews.com ...
It's never wrong to take money and time from the Democrat party and then serve another party. The Democrat party is evil.
And our “other president” as well, Chuck Heston.
Bait and switch my foot.
The Democrat party and anybody voting for it, serving it and running as it is shredding our Constitution and destroying our country.
They are fraudulent.
That's my pet peeve.
Exactly on Reagan. How are we supposed to increase our ranks if we dont convert some democrats?
I agree with the folks who say it is seedy to run under one party’s banner and then switch the next week after you got re-elected.
Phil Gramm did it the right way.
I agree with you there. I am in huge support of serving as what you ran as. Also, I am in favor of sore loser laws.
I was more talking about whether we should let former dems join us. How they join is another matter.
NOV 2010
Michael Willette (D / Inc.) 1,604
Jessica Chase Smith (R) 1,262
wonder what Jessica thinks.
That is just one of the many reasons I don't trust the Republican any more than I trust the Democrats.
One party with two faces.
Welcome, and remember why you switched. America needs all the help it can get. Our Country is in real trouble.
A dem switching over in the county is huge news!! Politics are a bit strange up there and full of social pressure to stay put.
Reagan was a JFK-like Democrat.
The Demo(n)crats of today are completely different then they were 40 or so years ago. C'mon, we both know this.
Just how is that hopey-changey stuff working out for you?
Tell me with a straight face that you and the rest on this thread who noted that Reagan was once a Democrat are seriously comparing the Democrats of 40-50 years ago now (ie: JFK) to the Democrats of today.
That's beyond ridiculous, IMO. JFK wouldn't recognize the Democrats of today as being from his party if he were still alive.
The "Reagan was once a Democrat" argument just doesn't hold water. The Democrat party of today is absolutely nothing like the Democrat party of 40-50 years ago. Making the comparison is incredulously ignorant of political history or worse, intellectually dishonest.
Me too ... but I was raised in New York City where Democrats often run unopposed.
On my little peninsula the independent ‘Harry S. Truman Democratic Club’ and ‘Good Government Regular Democratic Club’ have been active for years. They provide the important local linkages that make grassroots clubs so effective. They attend local events, they host fundraisers, they have columns in the local newspaper, they sponsor weekly bus trips to Atlantic City casinos. etc.
Only recently has the ‘Rockaway Republicans’ been formed. They are trying to revive a Republican presence in the Rockaways. But now the chair of the Queens County Republican Party wants to disband it in favor of a single Queens Club that would roll up all independent clubs within a single structure on the mainland. Bad move on their part.
See post 53. If you're seriously comparing the Democrat party of 40-50 years ago with today's Democrat party, you've completely lost the argument.
I hear what you’re saying, but you have the wrong attitude. Personally, I welcome disgusted, awakened Democrats to the Republican party much the way I welcomed Ronald Reagan to the Republican party when he left the... make that, when the Democrat party left him.
FRegards,
LH
See my post 53 above and try making your argument again.
You’re another one making false comparisons to the Democrats of 40-50 years ago (ie: JFK’s era) to the Democrats of today. See #53 above and try again.......
Willette won fairly handily; it was not a close race. I congratulate Willette for having the guts to do what he did, especially in a place like Maine. Welcome, Michael.
“Oh, Olympia..............Oh, Olympia..........are you paying attention.”
Sorry, but hell no!
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