[ April 19, 2024 ]
Keep up that impeachment hoax/cover-up, traitors. People are finally seeing the Democrats for the destroyers they are.
Pennsylvania Democrat switches to independent, will caucus with Republicans
By Marc Levy – Associated Press
Tuesday, November 19, 2019HARRISBURG, Pa. — A moderate Democrat in Pennsylvania’s state Senate from an area that shifted decisively to support Donald Trump in 2016’s presidential election is switching his registration to become an independent and said Tuesday that he will caucus with the Republican majority.
Story continues below advertisementIn a news conference in his Capitol office, Sen. John Yudichak of Luzerne County said that he had found a growing disconnect with an increasingly liberal Democratic caucus, and that some issues that are important
A pro-labor descendant of coal miners in a historic coal region, Yudichak maintained that his move wasn’t personal or about a single event. His stances on issues won’t change, such as backing some of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s signature issues, he said.
Adding to the tightrope Yudichak will walk, he said he would continue to fundraise for Democratic candidates and back Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 race for president.
“This is unique,” Yudichak said. “I’m an independent. I’m going to be fiercely independent. I’ve been independent by nature, now it’s going to be by party.”
Republicans hold 27 seats in the 50-seat chamber, with one solidly Republican district temporarily vacant until the winner of a Jan. 14 special election is sworn in. Counting Yudichak and the vacant seat, Republicans will likely have an effective 29-21 majority next year.
Yudichak, 49, has occasionally split with Democratic leadership on floor votes. He was the party’s longtime chair of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, and coming from a historic coal region often put him at odds with environmental advocacy groups and Democratic colleagues who favor renewable energies.
Yudichak’s departure comes after Democrats picked up six seats in the past year, substantially changing the profile of the caucus to become more liberal and shifting its powerbase to southeastern Pennsylvania.
It also comes as Democrats had eyed the potential in 2020 of capturing the Senate majority for the first time in nearly 30 years.
In 2016, Yudichak’s home county, which had long supported Democrats, flipped unexpectedly to support Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
While his Senate district has a heavy Democratic registration advantage, it bore the hallmarks of Trump country: it is whiter, with lower median incomes and lower rates of college-degree attainment, than the rest of Pennsylvania.
Still, Wolf won Luzerne County in last year’s election and Yudichak, who won’t go before voters again until 2022, had seemed safe in his seat: he didn’t even have an opponent last year on his way to winning a third four-year term.
His registration switch had been brewing for several years “as I’ve seen on certain issues where the party has drifted far, further from my viewpoints and my values,” he said.
He also views the Senate’s Republicans as “less of a purist party,” he said, and he framed his move as a way to break out of an “us vs. them” political world that is consuming, corrosive and alien to the world where his constituents live.
While top Republicans issued a statement Tuesday welcoming Yudichak, Democrats bade him a bitter goodbye. In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said Democrats were “extremely disappointed” to see Yudichak turn his back on their “large tent” values.
Yudichak responded that he didn’t believe Democrats had a big tent, and that “that tent is shrinking every day.”
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21 Comments4 years agoGreat so there is another RINO. Most Rs are RINOs, ie they are really Dems pretending to be Republican, 90% of the Rs are RINOs. In 1995 almost 140 Dems switched to R, how many of those RINOS are still in office 25 years later I wonder
4 years agoReply to AdamThis happened here in Georgia. When the Republicans became the majority in Congress after the ’94 mid-terms, shazam, a bunch of Dems woke up one morning and decided that they are really Republican and switched their party affiliation. And Republican voters, who many of them had voted against these “new Republicans” went along with the sham and voted them back in to their positions in the next election cycle under the Republican banner. Just a bunch of BS.
4 years agoReply to AdamThis happened here in Georgia. When the Republicans became the majority in Congress after the ’94 mid-terms, shazam, a bunch of Dems woke up one morning and decided that they are really Republican and switched their party affiliation. And Republican voters, who many of them had voted against these “new Republicans” went along with the sham and voted them back in to their positions in the next election cycle under the Republican banner. Just a bunch of BS.
4 years agoReply to Liberty712That was Newt’s fault. Instead of recruiting conservatives he recruited Dems to switch. What kind of moron does that? Its worse now though and that was 25 years ago
4 years agoReply to AdamIN 2008, A LOT OF DEMOCRATIC OFFICE HOLDERS THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH BECAME REPUBLICAN AND THE MEDIA DIDN’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT! THE REPUBLICANS FLIPPED A COUNTY IN TEXAS! MY ONLY PROBLEM WITH THIS GUY IS HE ENDORSED VP DADDY JOE BIDEN SO HOW CAN REPUBLICANS REALISTICALLY TRUST HIM TO CAUCUS WITH THEM?
4 years ago“While his Senate district has a heavy Democratic registration advantage, it bore the hallmarks of Trump country: it is whiter, with lower median incomes and lower rates of college-degree attainment, than the rest of Pennsylvania.”
The vast majority of Democrat Party members, of my acquaintance, fill the “lower median income and lower rates of college-degree attainment”. They aren’t “whiter”. Pretty even mix of the races.4 years agoHe can RUN,…. but he can’t HIDE his true color … Dem BLUE !!
4 years agoThe working class still and always will need unions but it does not and never will need Leftist unions with socialist delusions that intend to turn them into serfs.
4 years agoReply to MichelleNo they don’t unions run by 3rd party’s are Commies or mob = either one donates to lying filthy Marxist Democ-Rats.
Get a shop group together of honest real workers from there.
4 years agoReply to mtman2Reread what I posted as you just repeated me. Communists ARE socialists.
4 years agoReply to MichelleRight – term “honest shop unions” best used implace of “unions” as a general term- for most people still do not know or care to realize that difference + a serious problem causing State bankruptcies.
As you know 3rd party union bosses are for themselves 1st + always donate with workers dues money to Democ-Rat campaign’s to self perpetuate the very problems WE now have esp with ridiculous public unions at all levels + unpayable pension plans..
PS- Apologies= “working class” is a commie term + makes me see Red.
4 years agoReply to mtman2NPs when I am perfect I will expect it of others. Just don’t hold your breath waiting : ) I agree totally with your post. Public service, health and teacher unions are now the worst of their kind as opposed to those of the past(wharf side workers and seamen’s unions)
4 years agoYou just hide and watch, there will be mass defections from the commiecrat party once the curtain rings down on the impeachment hoax.
Joining the commiecrats is like a rat swimming toward a sinking ship.
For a fuller understanding, read Lee Smith’s book “The Plot Against the President”.
4 years agoIt means NOTHING. Democrats and today’s Republicans are the two wings of the same loathsome Socialist carrion-feeder. So-called ‘independents” are timorous fence-straddlers.
4 years agoReply to duraboYour either a Conservative Constitutional Christian Republican or a liar.
4 years agoReply to mtman2I am neither Repugnican nor Demoncrap, but rather a paleo-conservative to the political Right of Attila the Hun, “Dirty Harry” and John Wayne. Practising Anglican of the 1928 variety. Armed and trained.
4 years agoReply to duraboSorry non of that type are running…
Lots of Commies on the Far-Left side and either RINO Republicant’s or CCCR’s center Right.
4 years agoUh, NO, NO, NO! A Democrat by any other name IS STILL A DEMOCRAT.
THIS is the ONLY way a Dem could win and THIS IS EXACTLY WHY A DEM WOULD SWITCH THEIR POLITICAL PARTY!!!!
Americans are not easily fooled anymore, Democrats and RINOs!!!!!!
4 years agoA wolf in sheep’s clothing.
4 years agoSeems like a plant- what’s this 1/2 way bs.
Your either pregnant or not = I’d watch him close.
