Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters has jumped ship, moving to the Republican Party in preparation for his bid for re-election next year.

Running on the Democratic Ticket, Winters won the race for the post of sole commissioner in Chattooga County back in 2008, returning to office in 2012 – once again as a Democrat.

Last year (2014) Winters crossed swords with the local Democratic Party leadership when he publicly supported the re-election of two Republicans – Senator Jeff Mullis and Governor Nathan Deal, and the day following the November 4th General Election, the local Democrat Party officials voted to ban the two-time commissioner from once again running for office – as a representative of the party.

A later vote designed to remove him from the Democrat party was called off due to the lack of a quorum, but by that time Winters had apparently already made up his mind to move on and left the party.

Winters says he believes his political principals are more in line with the GOP.

(Summerville News/www.thesummervillenews.com)