Weintraub Joins Democrats, Prompts Talk of Senate Race : Politics: Switch from GOP may give her a better shot at state Sen. Alan Robbins’ seat.

Los Angeles school board member Roberta Weintraub has changed her party registration from Republican to Democrat, prompting speculation that she is preparing to run for higher office, possibly for the seat held by embattled state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana).

The opportunities for Weintraub, who had been a Republican for more than a decade, may be good if the coming reapportionment shakes up the city’s political leadership as expected.

“I think she’s interested in running for a partisan office,” said Alan Hoffenblum, a GOP political consultant with whom Weintraub conferred about her plans to switch parties. “She thinks she can do better running for an East Valley-based seat as a Democrat--that’s what I surmised from our talk.”

Weintraub, 55, of Woodland Hills has been a colorful figure in Valley politics since the late 1970s, when she was a leader in the anti-busing movement.

In an interview, Weintraub said that someday she would like a higher office, but insisted that her change of party does not involve a “secret strategy” that targets a particular elected office. Instead, she said, it became untenable for her to be a Republican, given her changing perspective on the huge, urban and minority-dominated school district she represents.

“I was just no longer in sync with the Republican philosophy,” Weintraub said, differing with the GOP on funding for education, the use of vouchers to give families a choice of schools, abortion and health-care issues. So last Dec. 26, she registered as a Democrat.