Just last month, three Kansas state lawmakers took the unusual step of swapping party affiliation: all three from Republicans to Democrats.
Now, California assemblyman Brian Maienschein is following suit.
Maienschein announced his decision at a press conference Thursday surrounded by his elated new peers.
“As the Republican Party has drifted further right, I and my votes have shifted to the left,” he said, per the Sacramento Bee. “I can either keep fighting to change the Republican party, or I can fight for my constituents.”
He put some of the onus on President Donald Trump.
“His conduct has been very offensive really since the beginning,” he said. “His conduct was reprehensible, immature, counterproductive to what I believed was best for the country.”
Per the Bee, Democrats now enjoy a whopping 61 of the 80 seats in the California Assembly.
The chief justice of the California Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, also made the leap last month, though she switched her affiliation from Republican to no-party-preference.
The three Kansas lawmakers—Sen. Barbara Bollier, Sen. Dinah Sykes and Rep. Stephanie Clayton—cited a Republican Party increasingly out of step with their beliefs, similarly to Maienschein.
I remember the trend was the other way in the early ‘80s when Reaganism was transcendent. It’s nice to see the momentum on our side as Republicans continue to make themselves irrelevant with outlandish, out of the mainstream ideas.
I guess I’d be more impressed if Democrats didn’t already overwhelmingly own the Legislature. If he wants to see any action, this is the only way he can get some.
So much winning…
I applaud the gentleman for seeing the nose on his face, but it takes real courage to do this in a situation where it will make a difference, like Jim Jeffords in 2001when he shifted Senate control to the D’s. A few present US Senate R’s could assure their re-elections if they would quit denying that their formerly-Grand Old Party is a criminal organisation no longer there to serve the American people but only themselves and their wealthy funders. But it would require a spine.
Those people in KS who switched from GOP to Democrat were the brave ones. Doing it here, in CA, only means you see the writing on the wall and being extinct doesn’t appeal to you. He saw what happened in OC and if it can happen here it can happen in San Diego. Smart move.