"Sellout" Stacey Armato Went Dem For Political, Not Principled Reasons

 Stacey Armato, Hermosa Beach City Councilmember, gave the following story to the Easy Reader News about why she joined the Democratic Party:

When she first got involved in the battle over oil drilling in Hermosa Beach in 2012, Stacey Armato was a registered Republican, and had been all her life.

“At that point, I hadn’t thoughtfully dissected why I was a registered Republican. It was more that my parents were small business owners, and they were registered Republicans. My husband is the same story: small business owner parents, registered Republicans. There was just never a thought about it,” Armato said.

Armato, who is now a city councilmember in Hermosa, said that during the oil campaign she began to recognize her priorities on environmental issues were out of step with those of Republicans. But she didn’t plan on changing her registration. “I didn’t think it defined me, I didn’t think it defined other people,” she said.

Since when did the Measure O issue have anything to do with Republican or Democrat? Then Councilman Michael DiVirgilio, a Democrat, supported Measure O. There were registered Republicans in the city who opposed Measure O, did not want the drilling. It was not a cut and dried issue at all.

Eventually it became impossible for her to reconcile her values with those of the national party. Her son Massimo was born with cystic fibrosis and required multiple invasive surgeries before he was a year old. The 2010 Affordable Care Act, which for the first time guaranteed coverage for those with preexisting conditions, had been a lifesaver, and Republican attempts to repeal it in 2017 left her dumbfounded. She switched her registration to Democrat.

We are talking about five years later, Stacey Armato decided that she did not want to be a Republican anymore.

This had nothing to do with Obamacare. This had nothing to do with seeing the national party drift away from her. This had EVERTYHING to do with the growing Democratic machine contingent that has been taking over Hermosa Beach for the last five years. 

There was nothing principled about Stacey Armato's decision to leave the GOP. She did it for politics, pure and simple, or should I say "impure and simple".

“I quietly changed it. I didn’t think I needed to make a big deal of it, but I did, and my husband changed his. There are multiple layers to it, each significant in its own way, and I stand by it,” she said.

She thought that she did not have to make a big deal about it, and yet here she is, in an interview with the Easy Reader News, telling them that she is no longer a Republican.

What it really amounts to is a lack of principles. People want power, and some people are willing to give up whatever principles they have to get some of that power. Why is anyone surprised by this?

I do resent Armato's insisting that she jumped the GOP ship because of environmental or healthcare concerns. Give me a break!