Democratic lawmaker immediately defects to GOP after winning re-election

www.rawstory.com Democratic lawmaker immediately defects to GOP after winning re-election

Florida state Rep. Susan Valdés announced Monday she is defecting to the Republican Party — immediately after being re-elected as a Democrat.Valdés, a Cuban-American lawmaker who was raised by immigrants in New York, represents a Tampa area district."I have spent my adult life fighting to give a voi...

Florida state Rep. Susan Valdés announced Monday she is defecting to the Republican Party — immediately after being re-elected as a Democrat.

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63 comments

Putting politics aside, why don't more people do this? Until a law fixes it, it's clearly a viable strategy and it rarely goes unpunished. Low risk high rewards, literally every single party plant should run against their own party and then immediately defect if they end up winning.
- Probably because it ruins your chances of being elected for anything ever. The person in the OP is retiring after this term so she doesn't care but for a politician in the middle of their career it's basically suicide.
  
  True for most people yes, but at least one person will blindly believe that their party will have their back when their constituents turn on them. The laws show no sign of changing and seem to actively encourage this behavior. The question refines to: Why wouldn't a political party just always tap into the pool of fodder to use for this particular strategy?
  
  I mean it doesn't matter what your party thinks if people simply won't vote for you.
  The question refines to: Why wouldn't a political party just always tap into the pool of fodder to use for this particular strategy?
  Probably because the number of politicians in the US, especially those in high enough office to matter for stuff like this, isn't high enough for the law of large numbers to apply.
  
  I don't know, maybe the next election in 2 years a democratic candidate would absolutely love to tour around the state with her on the campaign trail.

63 comments