Page Crosses Party Lines

Staff Writer

mrandolphadvance@gmail.com

Former Mon tgomer y County Republican Party chair Linda Page crossed political party lines last month, as she qualified as a Democrat in the upcoming Montgomery County Commission District 3 race.

“What’s fair about having a November election when it’s already cut and dried?” she remarked on her decision. “I’m not running at the state level, and I’m not running against anybody at the state level. I’m running where I want my friends and others to have whoever they want and have a choice.”

Prior to the decision, Page had been the county’s GOP chair for several years, but said that she told the individuals who encouraged her to step into the leadership from the start that she would not be controlled by the continued from page

Republican Party. “[When Buck Moon and state Sen. Blake Tillery asked me to chair the Party,] I said yes, but we’re going to do it my way — we’re not coming out here just to party,” she explained. “I told them that I would not do this if we had to say who we were going to vote for at these meetings. I said that I would bring everyone that they could get to come, and I got people like [State School] Superintendent Richard Woods and [2022 Governor Candidate] Vernon Jones. I tried to make the meetings informative.”

Page qualified for the Montgomery County Commission race on the last day of qualifying, as she said her decision came from realizing that all candidates who had so far qualified were Republicans. “This county is about us — it’s not about Atlanta. We need to be nonpartisan but we’re not. I didn’t want to do this, but who was it going to be? It was going to be three Republicans all facing off in May,” she commented.

She continued, “Basically, you’re not privately voting in May. You are having to say who you are, you’re having to say things like that – that’s not OK. It’s not fair why you have to do that. In November, let’s have a choice. If they don’t like what I’ve done, they don’t have to choose me, but at least I’ve said and got it out in the open that this is not fair.”

Upon being notified of Page’s decision, District 12 Republican Party Chairman Michael Wiltse and State Chairman Josh McKoon verified the information and removed Page from the Montgomery County Republican Party county chair position. When asked to comment on this decision, both men referred to the state GOP rules, which state that a State, District, or County committee member may be removed with cause. According to the men, in this case, the cause was that Page violated section 7.5B of the rules, which states that any member of the Committee that publicly advocates for a candidate for an office in which the Republican Party already has nominated candidates, that member shall be removed from the Party office.

Montgomery County citizen Eric Moxley has been appointed as the new County Chair, and may be reached by emailing montgomery@ 12gagop. org. He commented on this new role, as he stated, “I look forward to reorganizing our chapter in the upcoming weeks.”