For folks unfamiliar with White, he served as chair of the GOP finance committe for three years in addition to Alderman and a campaign for State Senate.
In the Metro article by Tony Lee, he explains:
“I think it’s a reflection of a lot of dissatisfaction among Massachusetts Republicans about the course the party has taken… in my Senatorial district, I ran across many independents who had switched from the Republican Party because of dissatisaction.”
No surpirses there, but White also points out that as finance chair he saw the negative impact of state and federal aid cuts on working-class communities like Somerville.
He also ads a parting shot at Healey’s negative campaign:
“I think that with what many might consider a very negative campaign against Deval Patrick, he has not responded in kind… I believe that residents would see an improvement in their financial situation because of the restoration of pre-budget cut levels.”
A hearty congratulations and welcome to Mr. White and any other Republicans who are tired of the Romney-Healey politics of cynicism. Together We Can.
UPDATE: The WaPo just pubished an article on party-switching from GOP to Dem in Kansas noting:
As elsewhere, Democrats and moderate Republicans say they are frustrated with policies and practices they trace to Republican leadership, including the Iraq war, ballooning government spending, ethics violations and the influence of social conservatives.
I’m stunned.
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Funny, though, recently I had a conversation with a local radio personality. This person switched from R to unenrolled, too. S/he shook h/is/er head, looked down, and said that the current Republicans had just moved too far over.
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I remember joking with them that they would be sorry later–my tenant said she registered unenrolled at first, but she hated it because she got phone calls from everyone, not just one side!
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Thanks for that article, though, I would have probably missed that.
…that Somerville actually had a Republican Alderman to begin with.
Whoah, we’ve lost our loca token “Republican we can say we like”! đŸ™‚
A lot of the same people who vote for Denise Provost for Alderman-at-large also vote for Bill White. Though some were turned off by his campaign against Pat Jehlen last year (he was the Republican nominee in the special election for state senate).
On my phone banking lists we have some folks where the target is a U or D with an R spouse — 9 out of 10 of those Rs are voting Patrick along with their spouse.
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I got an e-mail recently from someone looking to get some yard signs. So before I dropped them off, I wanted to make sure to update their ID in the computer — punched it up and you could have knocked me over with a feather – registered Republican. Go figure.
From the Journal:
Just noticed that?
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I think a lot of Republicans have been noticing it for a while now –not just here but across the country– and were holding out hope that it was just a temporary case of party hiccups that would pass.
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But we’ve been hearing similar sentiments from lot of different quarters:
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Mark Parkinson — former Kansas GOP state party chair, State Rep. and State Senator switched parties in May to run as Lt. Governor candidate alongside Kathleen Sebelius.
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Jim Webb — Secretary of the Navy under Reagan switched parties out of disgreement with Bush-neocon foreign policy; currently running for US Senate in VA against incumbent Republican.
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Charles Barkley — voted for Kerry in ’04, switched parties and in July and famously said, “I used to be a Republican, before they lost their minds.”
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Eric Massa — former Republican staffer to the House Armed Services Committee and assistant to Gen. Wesley Clark switched parties for similar reasons as Webb last year; currently running for NY-29 against incumbent Republican.
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Since Bush took power, a slew of Republicans from Paul O’Neill to Kevin Phillips to Gen. Anthony Zinni to John Danforth to Sen. Jim Jeffords to Ryan Sager have bemoaned the fact that the Republican Party is incompetent, corrupt, and doesn’t stand for anything anymore. Once-dedicated “Rockefeller Republicans” have been driven out in droves by the fundamentalist radicals who now control the party.
Don’t blame Bill White for the Somerville Journal’s sloppy mis-spelling of these Republican’s of Massachusetts Past. This paper is full of typos of even simple words. I don’t think they even have spell checker, not to mention a fact checker.
The online article also gets basic facts wrong about Bill White’s election to the Board of Aldermen. He was first elected in 1997. His “dramatic one-vote victory” came in his first re-election campaign, in 1999.
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p> (There was a recount, followed by a court case where a judge had to look at individual ballots and try to determine voter intent. For a few days, we thought the result would end up tied, and the city would have to call a new election to resolve it.)
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The printed version of the article corrects all of these errors — but only because I wrote in to complain. I don’t know why they didn’t fix the online version too.
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A lot of progressive Democrats, including me, have regularly supported Bill White in city elections. He has been disenchanted with the party of Bush and Romney for quite a while; I’m not sure why he took so long to finally leave them.
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Here is the Somerville News article on the same subject. They can’t spell Frank Sargent’s name correctly either!
is there a place to watch video of the debate online? I missed it.