SHOCK and AWE: Mitt Romney Voted Democrat in 1988 Became Republican in 1990s

Bombshell: Uncovered documents show Mitt Romney voted Democrat in 1988, Became Rep in 1990s

Cross Post

Mitt Romney has, unfortunately, made news again today, showing his long face to the public by endorsing Ted Cruz, but only in Utah, and only to stop Trump, who he believes is not a Republican.

Why does Mitt believe this? Because Trump donated money to Democrats in his business career. Trump, however, was a fundraiser for Ronald Reagan in 1980, and has donated a lot of time to GOP causes.

TRUMP ON ROMNEY’S FAITH (VIDEO LINK) FUNNY!

But Romney may not be as “Republican” as he claims to be, flip flopping on issues, and voting in the Democratic Primary in 1988:

“I’ve never voted for a Democrat when there was a Republican on the ballot. And — and in my state of Massachusetts, you could register as an independent and go vote in (whichever) primary happens to be very interesting. And any chance I got to vote against Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy, I took. … I have always voted for a Republican any time there was a Republican on the ballot.”

OK, so, at the debate, Romney voted for Tsongas because he was voting “against Clinton.” Of course, at the time, there were Republicans on a ballot, but as an independent voter, if Romney asked for the Democratic ballot, that’s what he got. (And as Politifact correctly notes, “By the time of the Massachusetts Primary, the renomination contest for Bush was all but over, whereas the Democratic contest still had some life in it.”) So, if Romney is showing up and voting strategically, all of this makes sense. (Though it’s remarkable that Romney bothered to go to all this trouble.)

However, the Romney-as-strategic-voter story has not always been the one Romney has presented as the reason he voted for Tsongas. There’s also the whole, “I-like-Tsongas-because-I’d-like-to-moderate-each-party’s-extremes” story. Per Politifact:

Media reports dating back to 1994 — when Romney first ran as a Republican for Senate — said that he had acknowledged voting for former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary in Massachusetts.

“An independent until last December, he publicizes his brief stint as a Democrat to support ex-senator Paul Tsongas in the 1992 presidential primary,” wrote David Broder in the Washington Post on Oct. 7, 1994. “ ‘I’m not a partisan politician,’ he said. ‘My hope is that after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses.’” Source