Allen Scolds GOP Colleagues, Stays in Party

After weighing a possible defection from the Republican ranks, Orange County Assemblywoman Doris Allen scolded her GOP colleagues behind closed doors Tuesday but emerged to announce that she will remain with the party.

Upset over her treatment by fellow Republicans while waging an unsuccessful fight for the 35th state Senate District seat, Allen (R-Cypress) said she briefly considered leaving the party this week.

Allen said that she decided against a switch to independent status, a move that would have thrown a new twist into the ongoing partisan warfare over control of the Assembly, because she believes she can accomplish more by remaining a Republican.

But that doesn’t mean she has to be happy with her colleagues. Allen delivered a 10-minute diatribe to Assembly Republicans during a closed-door lunch meeting. The speech was met with stony silence. Afterward, several colleagues approached her to express their sorrow that she felt wronged, Allen said.

Allen said she complained during her talk about the way Republican colleagues almost universally sided with Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Placentia), who won the GOP nomination last week for the 35th Senate District seat. She also griped about how Johnson and his allies worked hard to freeze Allen’s fund-raising abilities, essentially making the race an unfair fight, she maintained.

“What they did was wrong,” Allen said after the closed-door session. “They shouldn’t do those things, they shouldn’t cannibalize other members of the party. They collectively hurt me.”

Allen added that if Assembly Republicans “cannot get their act together and love each other and care about each other as colleagues, then I may have to reconsider” a switch to independent.

Such infighting “is not what I got into this party for--that’s not Republicanism,” she added. “How can we lead this state if we can’t get along with each other?”