On July 8, Craighead County Clerk Kade Holliday announced that he has changed his party affiliation from “Green” to “Republican.” See this story. He had been elected in November 2012 as the Green Party nominee. The election, in which he ousted the incumbent Democrat, was 18,471 Green; 11,487 Democratic.
There is an on-line unscientific newspaper poll attached to the news story, giving readers a chance to say if they approve or disapprove of the switch.
The Green Party is off the ballot in Arkansas because it didn’t poll as much as 3% for President last year. It is planning a petition drive to re-qualify for 2014.
Green to…Repub? Wut. Explanation, por favor.
Many Green Party members are former Republicans. People whose number one concern is the environment, in the past, were often Republicans, not Democrats. Theodore Roosevelt, the president who was the first to act aggressively to safeguard the environment, was a Republican.
Mr Holliday is saying now he’s really a Republican. Being a Green was just a mechanism for ballot access. We’re to understand he wasn’t saying what he really was during the campaign because. . .
We know now that affiliating with a political party is mask, independent of his real or actual views. He’ll have to grant the same to future opponents.
I’ve interacted with a lot of Greens, and the only one I can think of who “went Republican” is one who because a small “l” libertarian and switched to Republican so they could vote for Ron Paul in the primaries. Going from Green to Republican or Republican to Green strikes me as being unusual.
@responses: Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks for the additional information. 🙂 I remember hearing something about a guy running as a green for ballot access reasons before – might have been this guy.