"Why I Left the Republican Party" / LJWorld.com

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Categories: Politics | All
Event posted: March 13, 2013
Last updated: March 13, 2013

Event details

Saturday, March 16, 2013, 10 a.m.
Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H., Lawrence
Age limit: Not available

Former State Senator Jean Schodorf: "Why I Left the Republican Party" Former State Senator Jean Schodorf of Wichita will speak this Saturday about her recent departure from the Republican Party, and why she is now a Democrat. A three-term state senator, Schodorf was first elected to the Kansas Senate in 2001. During her tenure, Schodorf served as chair of the Senate Education Committee. In 2012, Schodorf and other moderate Republicans were targeted by Gov. Sam Brownback. After a barrage of misleading, negative attacks by groups like Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and the Chamber of Commerce, Schodorf was defeated in the Republican Primary by conservative candidate and Brownback disciple, Michael O’Donnell. Shortly after the election, Schodorf announced plans to switch parties and register as a Democrat. “As a lifelong republican I feel as though the Republican Party, nationally and at the state level, no longer represents me,” she said at the time. “My family has been Republican since Lincoln – since the party started. My parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents were all Republicans. But it’s changed. There’s no room for people who actually think in moderation.” Since leaving office, Schodorf has launched a blog, Our Kansas Voice, with fellow former state Senator, Dick Kelsey. “We decided to create Our Kansas Voice because we are concerned that real debate or opposing views will be missing or ignored in Topeka over the next couple of years,” Schodorf said. According to the organization’s website, the purpose is to provide an independent forum to talk about issues and to encourage citizens to get involved in government. Sponsored by Douglas County Democrats All Welcome

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topekaj 2 months ago

Welcome to the party of the decent, intelligent, caring, thoughtful and honest politicians who don't believe it is necessary to hide behind lies, half truths and secret sessions and represent only the greedy and selfish.

markoo 2 months ago

I'm sorry, but really? I'm about as liberal as they come, but even I don't believe what you write about the Democrats. That's naive and borderline scary that you would say and believe such things. Granted, I think they may lie a little less, but let's face it, it's often a vote between the lesser of two evils, time and again.

LarryNative 3 weeks, 1 day ago

That could be a new tag line "Vote Democrat, we lie less!"

cooonrod 1 month, 1 week ago

if you believe ANY politician ... WOW ! as you suck up to your wonderful parties .. HUNGER < POVERTY <INCOME worse than ever for Americans. much worse in USA than it was in 08 for all the Obama lovers ... decent , caring , honest , politician = misnomer

Liberty275 2 months ago

“Why I Left the Republican Party”

"Schodorf was defeated in the Republican Primary"

costello 2 months ago

A lot of candidates lose in primaries and don't switch parties.

“My family has been Republican since Lincoln – since the party started. My parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents were all Republicans. But it’s changed. There’s no room for people who actually think in moderation.”

Doesn't sound like she just switched parties in a snit.

techmanmacho 2 months ago

Really? It sounds like the exact reason she switched parties. The GOP isn't Sam Brownback. If she didn't like what was going on she should have tried to change it. Sounds to me like she was looking for an excuse to leave anyway......

Liberty275 1 month, 4 weeks ago

Would she have switched if she won the primary? Why didn't she just run as a democrat from the beginning if she is as "moderate" as you claim?

travelinggeek 1 month ago

because she saw her own party sabotage not just her, but many other moderate republicans just to give the Brownie full control and the ability to do whatever the heck he wants. I'm sure you all have read that he signed in to law a bill that will do drug testing on all people getting aid from the state. Where is your outrage at that? That is going to cost us, the taxpayers, more money by far (probably about 95%) than what we are going to save. The testing is extremely expensive and only about 2% of folks getting aid are using drugs. The other states that have already done this have found out that it costs much more money than it saves. Apparently our Gov doesn't believe in doing research

willgill 2 months ago

Unfortunately, this seems the prevailing direction of a cradle to grave nanny state. We have record numbers on public assistance and record number of those willing to keep them as their constituency. RIP opportunity and personal responsibility

cooonrod 1 month, 1 week ago

Republicans AND democrats are idiots ! Repubs insane right wing , at the same time liberals whorship and hide from reality . last 6 years poverty getting much worse, incomes have gone down. gap between rich and poor has widened the most under current leadership. Debt is going up and they keep printing and spending. votes really do not count as pork is given in the exact area needed to win .. only a few counties in the country control the electoral vote. both parties dig in and continue to make things worse and you fools still love both sides.. keep argueing as your country gets it's arrrssssss whooped.

JohnBrown 1 month, 3 weeks ago

"Personal responsibility"??? Really? Then why not let the public union members "take responsibility" for their own PAC deductions? Or...why not let women "take responsibility" for their own personal health care? No, what you say are the exact lies for which she left the Republican party.

JohnBrown

panhandle2 2 months ago

Ms. Schodorf, welcome to the party of yes.

Liberal 2 months ago

Yes, let us spend money we do not have so we can feel good at the same time bankrupting the country. I can tell you this if her compass told her that she can find a home with the Democrats she was a RINO already and all I can say is good riddance.

I would say her decision had more to do with her primary loss and demographics and a power hungry heart.

JohnBrown 1 month, 3 weeks ago

More lies. Reagan doubled the national debt, and George W doubled it again. Republicans have added more to the national debt than the Democrats.

Why not spout some facts once in a while?

JohnBrown

cooonrod 1 month, 1 week ago

and Obama quadrupled the debt Bush was idiot and Obama added more debt in 4 years than Bush in 8 .. check wikipedia.. real facts current lovers of both parties stick your head in sand and blame the other as the ship sinks... http://www.usdebtclock.org/

YouMustBeJoking 1 week, 2 days ago

If you truly knew anything about policy you would know that a majority share of the debt accrued under President Obama was in fact set in play by policy written under Bush Sr. , Clinton, and George W. And in fact a lot of our debt can be attributed to congressional republicans. To say we point fingers and then point fingers yourself gains you little credibility. The fact of the matter is: We are all at fault, and we need to fix it.

sunny 2 months ago

The Welfare Party

cooonrod 1 month, 1 week ago

Obama gave more to Wallstreet than all other presidents combined... point the finger and do not hold any accountable... idiots... far left and right

YouMustBeJoking 1 week, 2 days ago

Funny how more welfare recipients are registered republicans, and states considered predominantly red are the ones with the highest welfare rates. Seek an education.

merrill 2 months ago

This GOP is working for ALEC not republicans or Kansas. Brownback has had the backing of ALEC for more than 20 years or as long as he has been a politician.

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that.

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state land federal laws that govern your rights.

These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.

In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU?

United States of ALEC – Bill Moyers http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill

ALEC – The Voice of Corporate Special Interests in State Legislatures http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/alec-the-voice-of-corporate-special-interests-state-legislatures

ALEX EXPOSED – The Koch Connection http://www.thenation.com/article/161973/alec-exposed-koch-connection

ALEC – Ghostwriting The Law for Corporate America http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/15044.htm

ALEC EXPOSED http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

ALEC Private Schools - Corporate Education Reformers Plot Next Steps at Secretive Meeting http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/02-9

avarom 2 months ago

It isn’t just about me and minimizing my tax burden–I have a broader responsibility and interest than just worrying about me. I’m not in favor of the government or a political party supporting and promoting the agenda of narrow interests as I’ve seen the Republican party. I'm I favor a woman’s right to chose because it isn’t up to me or the State to do anything other than protect an individuals rights. I’ve worked my entire career in management and executive management to support pay and worker equality. My best performers have almost always been women! Barack Obama shares this belief about women. I’m in favor of diplomacy and reject the Bush Doctrine of unilateral, preemptive strikes against another sovereign nation unless it is the only course of action possible. I’m not in favor of bringing Democracy to the entire planet (or at least to those nations that have oil) at taxpayer expense.
When it comes to armed conflict, our Armed Forces should be managed fully by the military, not by politicians. If we are going to send our men and women into harms way, the rules of engagement should be to win. We’ve lost over 4,000 men and women due to a nation-building effort, not due to a “war.” I am not in favor of redistributing wealth via our system of taxation but I’m also not in favor of leaving people behind because of “me, me, me.” Somewhere, there has to be a balance between these extremes. I’m disgusted by the Bush/Cheney Administration and all they’ve done to undermine the U.S. Constitution and our standing in the world. I want balance on the Supreme Court, not a Court of hand-picked individuals in place merely to push the agendas of narrow specical interests. I appreciate that our nation is built on a separation of church and state; I want it to stay that way. I am in favor of a government that values fiscal restraint, not printing money like there is no tomorrow as we are seeing now.

Is the Democratic party perfect? Far from it! But, it offers a lot more to the world than the Republican party at this point. And, it offers a lot more to America at this point.

willgill 2 months ago

@avarom I would suggest your "broader sense of responsibility" should start with your personal investment in others, not the governments. Anyone can vote for someone to print money and throw it at problems. It take real leadership, and their OWN money to solve these problems. I'm glad your best performers have "always" been women, but you're suggesting a bias in that statement. My best performers are..... my best performers, regardless of sex, race, sexual preference. To promote any category over another is reversing progress. Personally, I find it hard to support a Democrat party giving excuses for the last 5 years of record unemployment, largest welfare roles, largest take-over of the economy in Obama-care and inexcusable cover-ups of Fast and Furious, Benghazi and endless funnels of taxpayer money to failing "green" companies. ......... Funny how Obama tried to scare us about how sequester cuts would spell doom. Conversely, the stock market is finally rallying the DAY the cuts took place. Too bad we re-elected a leader that never had job outside politics.

avarom 2 months ago

Herbert Hoover, a Republican, was a Progressive, the same as Obama and Hillary Clinton. They didn't change sides, so much as they all moved left. Republican Progressivism was an attempt to keep the Democratic Progressives, like Al Smith, "who was the foremost urban leader of the efficiency-oriented Progressive Movement, and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s," from gaining office (though Smith would have lost anyway on other grounds.)

Democrats have always been more liberal, beginning with their opposition to Alexander Hamilton's financial plans in 1790. After Thomas Jefferson joined with James Madison in 1792, the party is referred to as the Democratic-Republican Party. This is historically correct, but popularly they are simply called "Republicans", because the other party was the Whig Party. So there is part of the confusion.

But when one part of the party supported Andrew Jackson, the party split and what was left was called the Democratic Party. So it's all confused anyway.

The Jefferson/Madison "Republican" party was against big government, yet they were strongly in favor of a strict interpretation of the Constitution, which today only the most conservative Republicans and libertarians are for. (And Republicans today are not so much "for" big business as they are "for" the right of business to become "big".)

Democrats do not want strict readings of the Constitution,--they call it is a "fluid document" (meaning they think they ought to be able to move it any directly that is necessary to meet their ends) and some have been quoted as saying they favor judicial activism, because doing what is right, that is, creating new Amendments as the Constitution says they legally must do, "takes too long"! Can you believe that?

So what has really happened over the years is that politics has gone far to the left, away from the principle of "individual sovereignty" supposedly protected by the Ninth Amendment, because Marx stirred the pot so heavily that the poor and the early Democrats began to believe some of it. In order to keep some power, the newly-minted Republican party had to begin moving to the left. Lincoln was the first Republican president, and he didn't free the slaves because it was the right thing to do--he did it to win the war.

Now, it's hard to tell the parties apart. The Republicans talk about getting rid of "big government", but not about why "the government which governs least governs Constitutionally". Government must be as big as it must be, in a big world. But it must be Constitution government, and both sides for the most part break it all to pieces.

I don't mind "big government", yet I'm a libertarian. What I mind is unConstitutional government.

Armstrong 2 months ago

Schodorf was defeated in the '12 election, the election she ran in as a Republican. Ask yourself if Schodorf had won would she be in Larryville? Jean hasn't "seen the light " Jean was voted out and is looking at reinventing herself.

KU7679 1 month, 1 week ago

Scholdorf, like many of the deposed R legislators, would have and could have won the general election but they could not win the primary where only R's voted. And they could have beat the candidates who won Republican primaries if they had run head to head in an election where all voters could cast ballots. I guess this is one of my problems with the two party system. Neither the R nor D party necessarily puts out the candidates the people really want.

This is one reason the legislature should leave the politics out of school board and city commission elections!

imin88limbo 2 months ago

I just hope you have some staying power. And that there are some more newer responsible Republicans additional to and like Rochelle Chronister, Governor Mike Hayden, Doctor Ed Flentje, the late Jack Ransom, and others who have enough energy and hope and "fight" in them to join with the responsible democrats of that same era, to oppose the further erosion fo freedom and progress in Kansas. I believe Joan Wagnon and her colleagues would welcome that. How about it Bill Bunten?