Are "Ex"-Republicans Ever Really Ex-Republicans? (Spoiler: Yes, But Almost Never)

If there was a Howie Klein Award for Political Truth-Telling and I got to award it, last week's would have gone to DailyKos diarist Tom Brock for his Saturday essay, Former Republican Chairs Local Dem Committee... What Could Go Wrong?!, nominated by my friend Fergie, the best source of Virginia political intelligence I know.

Here at DWT, we often discuss the DCCC's absolutely-positively favorite kind of Democratic candidate, "ex"-Republicans. They recruit them at every opportunity and then spend millions of dollars trying to get them into Congress while stiffing actual Democrats running. The quotation marks around "ex," indicates that though they may changed their party registration... for those of us who are looking for a little something more, well... they are not actual Democrats. The DCCC is not-- not ever-- looking for a little something more. The other day when I heard long-time Trump shyster attorney Michael Cohen had switched his voter registration from Republican to Democrat, my first thought was that Pelosi and Ben Ray Lujan would have him running for Peter King's seat on his native Long Island in 2020. Not just an "ex"-Republican but a celebrity with lots of wealthy friends... a DCCC wet dream.

Tom Brock is a member of the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee and he started with a perfect paragraph: "When we allow Republicans into local Democratic committee leadership, we end up with Republicans on the most effective voter outreach tool that we have. The  local Virginia Beach Democratic Chair has unilaterally included Republicans on the VBDC Ballot guide that is handed out at every polling location in the city. (Low information voters rely on these to make voting decisions.)"

Maybe we should have seen this coming based on a previous article posted right here on DailyKos back in March of 2018, calling into question the Chairwoman’s past political activities.

Vice Mayor Louis Jones is currently listed as an “Elected Leader” on the Republican Party of Virginia Beach.

How did these guys get on the ballot guide? Maybe it’s as simple as pay-to-play.  A local Democratic fundraiser was held in which these Republicans, and their immediate family were allowed to become “Sponsors” with $1000 + donations. Two days after this fundraiser these two Republican candidates, were included on the ballot guide pictured above, despite their public support for the Local Republican nominee for Congress.

You can’t make this stuff up. Within the VBDC this is being contested.  The members of the VBDC are in the process of putting a stop to this right now.

The Democratic Party of Virginia has a rule regarding this situation.

Can an "ex"-Republican ever really be an ex-Republican for real and be a worthwhile leader for Democrats? The answer is: rarely. In Congress, there are real garbage members-- take reactionary Blue Dogs Tom O'Halleran of Arizona, who votes against progressive legislation 60% of the time, and Charlie Crist of Florida, who votes against progressive legislation 50% of the time-- and they are typical of "ex"-Republicans. They have no understanding of what the Democratic Party is and what it is supposed to represent. That's because to them it only represents one thing: a vehicle for their own careers. Elizabeth Warren used to be a Republican too; she was born into a Republican family. After years and years of being a Democrat, she was elected to office, already a proven quantity. She's more a Democrat than 90% of the current Congress and a thousand times more a Democrat than any of the DSCC crap recruits this cycle. As for the DCCC, they've recruited so many "ex"-Republicans this cycle that odds are good that if you vote for a DCCC recruit you're voting for an "ex"-Republican... especially if you vote for one that the DCCC is spending millions of dollars on, like Gill Cisneros (so far $2,068,341 from the DCCC, another $538,167 from Pelosi's SuperPAC and $119,977 from Priorities USA, a DCCC cut-out). That may not bother you. Or perhaps you're resigned to just voting for every creature with a "D" next to its name because of Trump. I'm just doing my Eyes Wide Open bit. And by the way, here's a very ex-Republican: