Posted on 08/10/2011 10:31:33 AM PDT by LdSentinal
LITTLE ROCK — State Rep. Linda Collins-Smith, a Democrat, announced today that she is switching parties and becoming a Republican.
Collins-Smith, of Pocahontas, announced the switch during a news conference at the state Capitol. She did not take questions from reporters and did not say whether she would seek re-election next year as a Republican.
“I have not changed. I have not left the Democratic party, but the party left me,” she said.
Rep. Linda Collins-Smith Collins-Smith called Republicans “hard-working, commonsense people” and said the GOP “most closely holds to the principles that I and most Arkansans believe in.”
The Democratic Party “has become the party of big government, Big Brother and big spending,” she said.
The freshman lawmaker currently represents Randolph County and a portion of Sharp County in northeastern Arkansas. Her district, however, was redrawn under a plan recently approved by the Arkansas Board of Apportionment that puts her in the same district with another incumbent, Rep. Lori Benedict, R-Salem, starting with the 2012 election cycle.
Collins-Smith’s party switch does not change control of the House but does narrow the Democratic majority. Democrats now hold 54 seats to Republicans’ 46. Democrats hold 20 seats in the state Senate to Republicans’ 15.
During this year’s legislative session, Collins-Smith voted against or spoke in opposition to a number of bills supported by Democrats and Gov. Mike Beebe, and supported a number of Republican-backed bills.
She voted against the sweeping corrections reform proposal supported by the Democratic governor, saying on the House floor it was “an act that fools the public with ankle bracelets and lower offenses.” The measure ultimately passed.
She voted against a bill to ban cell phone use in school zones, which passed, and voted for a bill to allow people with concealed-carry permits to carry guns in church, a Republican-sponsored bill that passed the House but died in a Senate committee.
Collins-Smith also supported more tax cuts than the governor proposed. She was a co-sponsor of a bill to cut the capital gains tax, which passed in the House but died in a Senate committee. She also backed measures to cut the sales tax on manufacturers’ utilities and to create a back-to-school sales tax holiday, both of which Beebe opposed but the Legislature adopted.
She sponsored a bill to ban health plans that cover abortion from participating in the state’s health insurance exchange, which never got out of a House committee. She co-sponsored a similar Senate bill that got out of the Senate but failed in the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.
Collins-Smith’s party switch comes after an election year in which Democrats saw their commanding majorities in the House and Senate dwindle significantly in a Republican surge.
Before the 2010 general election, Democrats held 72 seats in the 100-member House and 27 seats in the 35-member Senate. The election handed more seats to Republicans than the party has controlled since Reconstruction.
All 135 legislative seats will be up for election in 2012 following this year’s redistricting, which is done every 10 years in accordance with U.S. Census data.
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Welcome aboard Mrs. Collins-Smith!
Welcome aboard Mrs. Collins-Smith!
Linda Collins-Smith's supporters then noted "Prior to 2011, history shows that the Democrats were the CONSERVATIVE party in Arkansas and the Republicans were the liberals. The two parties switched sides in 2010 so she didn't change her views"
;-)
This makes good propoganda. She’s been drawn into a district with another Republican, so she might not be back for another term. But it’s a good development just the same.
The woman is switching parties because the newly redrawn district encompasses areas belonging to an incumbent Republican. Since she switched I'd guess it leans more conservative or Republican. This is politics and nothing more.
Check out her pic..she’s far too good looking to be in the Dem party...only fuglies are Dems..
Traitor! Renegade! Outlaw! Backstabber! Career politician!
Hyphenated-Name! Bets she’s a lawyer!
NEOCON Rino ALERT!! DANGER DANGER!!
Was she a democrat in the vein of Zelll Miller or in the vein of a RINO?
If she was liek Zell Miller then she is welcome, if not the party should refuse her.
The Democrat party “has become” the party of big government? Just now? Is this a recent developkment? (as popeye would say)
Great but I would not trust her as far as I could throw her. Not for a good while.
Real Education is a slow and arduous process, but this proves that there may be some hope for America.
Just don’t teach her the secret handshake until she has proven herseff!
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