Confession: I once voted for a Republican.

[RandySF]

Back in Michigan I voted a Republican district judge in suburban Detroit. Judicial elections in Michigan are non-partisan but he was appointed by a GOP governor. Solid, fair and had no ambitions beyond deciding traffic tickets and other petty offenses. So yeah, I admit that I voted for the guy.

[pinboy3niner]

1. I'll alert the media

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I voted for a Republican once, as well......another non-partisan office.

Our county is run by the Board of Supervisors, and she was running for a seat. I liked her ideas a lot, and wanted to see her win.

Alas, she didn't. She was a moderate Republican--the kind that doesn't exist anymore.

[flvegan]

3. Somewhere there's an alert-monkey pounding away

because they "think" you've somehow justified voting for someone with an R. It's hurtful, don't you know.

In other news, there's another alert-monkey pounding away on this post for mocking alert-monkeys. LOL!

[MontyPow]

22. The alert monkey will be for me

A lot of Democrats will be voting for Republican Charlie Crist (D-FL). Many more will cheer the "Democratic" victory.

[shenmue]

4. This puppeh

would like a word with you.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[hifiguy]

11. - squee -

[shenmue]

14. Thank u

[hifiguy]

25. So cute!

Almost as cute as a kitten!

[MoonRiver]

32. Awwwww

What a doll!

[bluestateguy]

5. I did one or two times two

But I won't say who they are.

I one case, I regretted the vote almost right away.

In the other case, it was because the Democrat was a District Attorney who railroaded innocent people into jail. It was important that he lose his job.

[JaneyVee]

6. WHYYYY!

[pinboy3niner]

7. ...

[rufus dog]

8. Voted for a Repub for CA state Senate

A dude that wasn't a tool, called Ahrnuld out on his piss poor response to CA wildfires. Good guy, was buried for his principled stands.

[cheapdate]

9. I'm a huge fan of our County Mayor, who is a Republican.

I vote for him every time and encourage others to do so as well. He's dedicated to smart growth and land use policies that promote preservation of historical and environmental heritage as major goals. He directed the county attorney to defend the right of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro to build a new worship center in the county. He has an open "walk with the Mayor" on Sundays.

He's the only Republican I've ever voted for, but he's a good leader.

Here in middle Tennessee, the spiritual homeland of the Tea Party, we could do a lot worse.

[hifiguy]

10. I did too.

A perfectly sane and reasonable Senate candidate named Dave Durenberger who later became a huge thorn in Raygun's ass on Central American issues. Never regretted it. The "democrat" in that 1978 race was running far to his right.

A couple of sensible R congressional candidates too. Back in the 70s when sane and thoughtful people still existed in that party.

[packman]

12. Hell, the first and only time I vote Repuke

was for Eisenhower , only because my dad told me to. All in all, not that bad of a first choice.

[hifiguy]

16. Ike was the only Repuke my ol' dad,

a union guy from way back, liked. He couldn't stand Nixon, though.

[packman]

41. Our dad's thought alike

I remember him telling me that if Nixon was ever elected President the country would be in for some bad times. Dad didn't trust him and for a guy with little political interest outside of voting straight Dem, he had an astute sense of a person's character.

[catbyte]

13. I did too. My US Congressional representative, Paul Henry. Very decent, kind, and

fair man. He had to quit due to a malignant brain tumor which, sadly, he did not survive. He was replaced by a real tool, and now we're stuck with an even bigger tool, Justin Amash.

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. way back decades ago - I voted for the Republican candidate for District Magistrate

for Corry, PA - because the Democratic candidate was the wife of the Chief of Police. The main criticism of the Republican incumbent was that he was too hard on the police in insisting they stick to the Constitution and following proper procedures. I might even vote Republican for a local council member where I currently live - because I know the guy and also because he is a strong advocate for legalizing marijuana. Local politics is sometimes outside what is going on ideologically with the two major parties. At the local level we will still find some fairly reasonable Republicans and some utterly reactionary Democrats. AT the higher level we find plenty of the latter but few of the former.

[a2liberal]

24. I had something similar

Republican running for DA (IIRC) who was strongly opposed to police overreach and was overall a nice guy (a bit shy, reminded me of myself, not your typical politician type). The Democrat was a typical career politician guy... and won.

[Xyzse]

17. I have as well. Still, I must mention that I am an Independent.

However, at the moment, I just can't see myself voting for a Republican again.
They do too much damage, and they need to seriously reconsider their core positions, since everything they do nowadays is just missing the point.

[moondust]

18. The GOP was once pretty sensible.

Though I doubt that anybody here was ever old enough to vote for that version of the GOP.

[RandySF]

19. And I realized something else

You could even count on Republican election officials to follow the law and not try to change it to keep people from voting.

[moondust]

21. It's criminal what they're doing now.

Little dictators undermining representative government.

[hifiguy]

26. Two words: Richard Nixon.

[Hippo_Tron]

28. Not the entire GOP, the Eisenhower/Dewey wing was writing that platform...

But the Taft/Goldwater wing of the party was still very present in the 50's. Not to mention Joe McCarthy.

[safeinOhio]

30. My Dad, who would be over 100 years old

if still alive, once told me,"I've been a Democrat my whole life, I either vote for them or against them". Now I understand him.

[hobbit709]

34. And that platform is to the left of the Democratic ones of 2008 and 2012.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

20. I did, too. Kind of.

In the state where I lived at the time, you had to register as a party member to vote in the primaries. I registered as a Republican once to vote for a weak candidate who had no chance of winning the general election. He didn't even win the primary, but it ultimately didn't matter since a Democrat won the presidency that year. That state has open primaries now, so the record that I registered as a Republican probably doesn't exist anymore. At least I hope not. It bothers me to think there might be a piece of paper somewhere connecting me to a party I always hated, even before I could vote, even though I only did it to undermine the Rep. candidate.

[DFW]

23. So did I. Once, and proudly. But wait til you hear who the "Democrat" was.

It was 1971. I was a college student in Philadelphia, and it was my first time voting, ever.

The vote was for mayor of Philadelphia. The Republicans ran a kindly administrator named Thatcher Longstreth. The Democrats ran the boorish, brutal and corrupt police commissioner, Frank Rizzo. Rizzo's claim to fame was that he used to show up at formal occasions with a nightstick in his cummerbund, just to remind people that he encouraged his cops to use nightsticks to beat up Vietnam War protesters. He also boasted that Richard Nixon was "his friend."

Rizzo won (anyone remember the last line from "The Seven Samurai?&quot , and soon did us a huge favor by switching to the Republicans, which is where he belonged all along. He finally gave up after not being able to explain how he was suddenly building a luxury house that cost ten times his yearly salary.

I have rarely run up against a more hideous public personality, and I am in no way ashamed for voting against him.

[cali]

27. I voted repeatedly for Jim Jeffords. I have nothing but respect for him.

[Bluenorthwest]

38. Jeffords voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act.

So I have something other than respect for the people who did that nasty, bigoted bit of legislation as 100% of Jefford's Republicans did, as well as 2/3 of the Democrats.

[cali]

40. He did, but he also acknowledged it as wrong

and came to support marriage equality. And his record on civil rights- including LGBT rights, was very good.

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Jim_Jeffords.htm

If his record on these issues was generally lousy, I wouldn't have such esteem for him. People change and grow. And Jeffords did just that.

2006 Constitutional Amendment

In 2006 the Senate voted on adding a constitutional amendment which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and ensured to no state would be capable of conferring marital status on a union other than a man or a woman. James Jeffords voted against the 2006 amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

James Jeffords voted against the 2006 amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

2004 Constitutional Amendment

In 2004 the Senate voted on adding a constitutional amendment which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and ensured to no state would be capable of conferring marital status on a union other than a man or a woman. James Jeffords voted against the 2004 amendment to define marriage as one man and one woman.

James Jeffords voted against the 2004 amendment to define marriage as one man and one woman.

<snip>

http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Senate/Vermont/James_Jeffords/Views/Gay_Marriage/

[JustAnotherGen]

29. My father had Nixon supporter buttons!

He did! My mom showed us all of his very well hidden Nixon memorabilia after he died.

His father was always a Republican until the 1960's.

Many affluent blacks in the South were Republicans back then. He always voted - at times paid big bucks to get copies of the poll tests so they could cheat. Northern Alabama had a thing for administering them in foreign languages do I think it's cool he cheated and got one over on them.

[Jim Lane]

31. The last time I voted for a Republican, it was because I thought the Democrat was a crook.

In that Democrat's subsequent plea deal, he was sentenced to one to four and did about nineteen months.

[hobbit709]

33. The only way I'd vote for a Republican would be FOR conviction on a jury.

[B Calm]

35. I voted for a republican county road commissioner, he told me if elected he would pave the

gravel road I live on. The no good asshole lied!

[Bluenorthwest]

36. That's a function of straight privilige, thinking Republicans as judges is a reasoned choice.

Something I could never in one million years see as reasonable. Sorry. Voting for the enemy, pure and simple.

[madokie]

37. I voted for a republicon friend once too

You notice I typeed friend didn't you?. Otherwise I won't vote for a pukeliCON if my life depended on it

[brer cat]

39. I voted for Bo Callaway for GA governor in 1966

even though he was a segregationist. He was running against Lester Maddox and I considered Callaway the lesser of two true evils. Sometimes we don't get much to chose from.

[boguspotus]

42. I voted for Arne Carlson for MN governor:

That was the only time ever. Today, he would never be considered a republican.

[pipi_k]

43. Sometimes you just gotta

forget about the letter following the name.

I voted for a Republican in a local election, and here's why.

If the letters beside the names of both candidates were taken away or switched, their platforms would have been pretty obvious. The Republican sounded more like a Democrat than the Democrat did.

So whaddaya do...

Vote for a "Democrat" who was anti women's rights, or a "Republican" who was pro women's rights... As well as a few other social issues where each side sounded like it should have sported the label of the other.