Sen Guillory, D-La Switches Back To Republican Party

I was surprised when Louisiana Democratic Senator Elbert Guillory criticized fellow Senator Karen Carter Peterson for claiming Republicans were racist for opposing Obamacare. But it turns out he was actually a Republican prior to switching parties in 2007, although he continued to vote conservatively as a Democrat.  However, fed up after 6 years, he just announced he was rejoining the Republican party. At a conference in Baton Rouge, where he was given the Frederick Douglass Award, he said:

As of this day, I join Frederick Douglass as a Republican. Today the party of disappointment has moved away from the majority of Louisiana. They have moved away from traditional values of most Americans. They have left us behind on crucial issues like abortion, vouchers, Second Amendment rights, union control of public jobs, school prayer, family issues.

Their support of dependency over self-reliance, of everything but traditional marriage, of abortion on demand, their policies have encouraged the high teen birth rates, high school drop out rates, high incarceration rates and very high unemployment rates.

Our self-initiative and self-reliance are sacrificed in exchange for votes for the party of disappointment.

The list of disappointments is long…the lies and cover-up at Benghazi, the IRS harassing the tea party and wiretapping and spying on reporters.

Louisiana has not had a black Republican senator since the Reconstruction Era years (1865 to 1877).

Apparently, Karen Carter Peterson's comments were a catalyst for his decision to part ways.

"The accusations of racism this week certainly helped push me over the edge. I thought that they were over the edge." "It just showed me just how far out of tune I was, I am, with the Democrat Party."

He filed his papers to switch the same day of Peterson's comments.

Naturally, the Democratic Party lashed out, calling it political opportunism.

"This move isn't surprising given Guillory's record of saying one thing to his constituents and then voting another way," Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said in a statement Friday.

"He should do the right thing and step down from his seat immediately since he has chosen to abandon the Democratic Party values that the voters elected him to represent."

He will remain a "full-fledged member" of  the Legislative Black Caucus, although he will now be the only Republican.

Welcome back Senator Guillory, although with his conservative voting record he was actually a DINO.