Tomi Van de Brooke has been well-known as a Republican activist, in addition to being a well-known local businesswoman and a member of the Contra Costa Community College board. She cut her teeth on GOP volunteering as a teen-ager.

So why has she changed her registration to Democratic? When the word got around, speculation immediately flew that she was planning to run for something higher, perhaps against Gayle Uilkema for her Board of Supervisors seat.

Whenever someone well-known in politics does something unusual, the speculation immediately begins with "what is he/she running for?"

No way, Tomi told the Insider. Just elected to the college board last November (after being appointed to fill a vacancy the previous year), she says that's all she's interested in. And if she ever runs for something else, it certainly wouldn't be against Uilkema, who is popular, a master campaigner and considered a hard-working supervisor.

She said she is honest about the reason for re-registering. Her folks are life-long Republicans and her father was quite active in the party in Contra Costra when she was growing up. But she said she knew years ago that she was philosophically a Democrat. She waited until they retired to the Central Valley to make the move because she didn't want to hurt them. She said her disagreement with the way the party's leaders are operating in Washington was an added incentive to do it now.

(posted (2-1-07)