Every day, people face a choice of helping move our country in a forward, progressive manner, or back to the mindset of the 1800s. Barbara Hafer, the Pennsylvania State Treasurer, switched from being a Repugnant Republican, to the Democratic Party. She said her views, which are progressive, on women’s rights, among others, echo that of the Democratic Party, and she’s right! Want better news? She is thinking about challenging that totally ignorant yabbo, Rick Santorum, in 2006.
Congrats on being a free thinker, Barbara!AP Newsbreak: Pa. treasurer switches from Republican to Democrat
The Associated Press December 30, 2003
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After months of speculation that she would switch her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, state Treasurer Barbara Hafer told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she had officially changed her registration.
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Hafer, who is in her second term as treasurer and previously served two terms as auditor general between 1988 and 1996, said she had completed the paperwork for making the switch and had it filed Monday.
She said she made the switch simply because she felt her progressive stance on social issues, such as her support of abortion rights, no longer fit with the Republican Party.
“I decided to change to a party that’s more in line with my thinking,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Saltsburg, Indiana County.
Hafer, whose current term expires in 2005, has been mentioned as a possible opponent to Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in 2006 if she did switch parties. She said that while the prospect of running against Santorum was “interesting,” she had not decided on any future political plans.
“I’m not there yet. I haven’t made up my mind. It’s a very big issue, and it;s a ways off,” she said.
Hafer angered Republicans when she endorsed Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell in the 2002 election.