Party loyalty

==Details==
===Saga from Don Richards posted in November, 2006===
Just wondering, is it still okay to go by the name Franklin County
Cleansweep or do we have to change our name?
We were fairly successful in the election, with Todd Rock defeating
Pat Fleagle to become state representative. Been some fallout, of
course.
Fleagle had gotten enough write ins to run as a Democrat. When I
began to support his Republican opponent Rock, I was warned that if I
continued I would be kicked out of the Democratic committee, can't
have a Democratic Party Official working against a "Democratic"
candidate, even if he is a Republican. So rather than being kicked
out, I resigned my positions as district committeeman, President of
the local Democratic Club and as State Committeeman. From the
general public I received about equal pro and con for my support,
which included a letter mailed to the district's Democratic Super
voters asking them to split their tickets. From the party's
leadership it was all anti. You would have thought that I was worse
than Hitler or Stalin. I told them that I wasn't giving up my right
of free speech, just to be a "leader" of the Democratic Party.
Besides, I think that I can claim some credit for Rock's 1700 vote
win. I think that overall the Democrats will miss my 32 years of
working for them more than I will miss them.
That said, I want to stay involved. Because there are other pay
raise issues out there. I ran for County Commissioner in 2003 and
the pay was set at about $55000. Back then, I thought that an
elected official's salary could not be increased during their term of
office. From what I am seeing, it looks like County Commissioners
have been getting increases and now make over $60000 a year. Just
how his came about is anybody's guess, but somehow I think our state
legislators are involved. Does anyone have any insight on this?