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Maine Rep Switches From Dem To republican
Bangor Daily News ^ | 11-13-10 | Christopher Cousins, BDN Staff

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 ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: 2010midterms; me2010; realignment; switch
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To: Our man in washington
...resign and then run in the special election for the other party. After all, it’s wrong to take money and time from one party and then serve in the other.

It's never wrong to take money and time from the Democrat party and then serve another party. The Democrat party is evil.

41 posted on 11/13/2010 8:21:19 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: Netizen

And our “other president” as well, Chuck Heston.


42 posted on 11/13/2010 8:23:28 AM PST by FrogMom (No such thing as an honest democrat!)
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To: Egon
This is a pet peeve of mine. If you get elected as a Democrat, you stay a Democrat. If a Republican, you stay a Republican. If you want to switch parties, do it before the election cycle— not pull a bait and switch as soon as you’re elected. This is fraud, pure and simple.

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.

43 posted on 11/13/2010 8:29:11 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: Grumplestiltskin

Exactly on Reagan. How are we supposed to increase our ranks if we dont convert some democrats?


44 posted on 11/13/2010 8:34:15 AM PST by Raider Sam (They're on our left, right, front, and back. They aint gettin away this time!)
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To: Raider Sam

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.


45 posted on 11/13/2010 8:46:47 AM PST by gthog61
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To: gthog61

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.


46 posted on 11/13/2010 8:52:53 AM PST by Raider Sam (They're on our left, right, front, and back. They aint gettin away this time!)
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To: usconservative

NOV 2010
Michael Willette (D / Inc.) 1,604
Jessica Chase Smith (R) 1,262

wonder what Jessica thinks.


47 posted on 11/13/2010 9:21:54 AM PST by campaignPete R-CT ("pray without ceasing" - Paul of Tarsus)
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To: paul in cape
Let me see if I understand this.
A: He ran and won as a Democrat
B: He accepted Democrat money to campaign with
C: He switched parties 10 days after the election.
D: The Republicans welcomed him with open arms.

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.

48 posted on 11/13/2010 9:25:38 AM PST by Tupelo
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To: paul in cape

Welcome, and remember why you switched. America needs all the help it can get. Our Country is in real trouble.


49 posted on 11/13/2010 9:27:48 AM PST by Logical me
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To: paul in cape

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.


50 posted on 11/13/2010 9:35:07 AM PST by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: Netizen
Wasn't Reagan a Democrat at one time?

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.

51 posted on 11/13/2010 10:11:20 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: WellyP
At least for now, we can hope.

Just how is that hopey-changey stuff working out for you?

52 posted on 11/13/2010 10:13:00 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Springfield Reformer
Not to pile on, but “Ronaldus Magnus” wouldn’t have gotten through under your test, so how does that hekp us?

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.

53 posted on 11/13/2010 10:18:57 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: N. Theknow
As for myself, I was Democrat being raised in the South.

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.

54 posted on 11/13/2010 10:21:06 AM PST by Alice in Wonderland
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To: Raider Sam
Yeah, Ronald Reagan was suuuuch democrat/RINO!

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.

55 posted on 11/13/2010 10:23:17 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: usconservative

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


56 posted on 11/13/2010 10:25:09 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: N. Theknow; bboop; Netizen; Lysandru; dangerdoc; Raider Sam; Tennessean4Bush

See my post 53 above and try making your argument again.


57 posted on 11/13/2010 10:25:22 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Lancey Howard

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.......


58 posted on 11/13/2010 10:26:52 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: campaignPete R-CT

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.


59 posted on 11/13/2010 10:28:39 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Carley

“Oh, Olympia..............Oh, Olympia..........are you paying attention.”

Sorry, but hell no!


60 posted on 11/13/2010 10:30:55 AM PST by EDINVA
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