I didn't know that Foley was once a Democrat....

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Foley spent nearly double the money that Owens did on the campaign, but he lost to the electrician in a low-turnout primary election.

"I'm a committed Democrat, and I support the party," Foley said on the night of his defeat. "I have no regrets."

But a few months later he switched his party registration to Republican and started sounding like one, explaining that he could no longer be a Democrat because of the party's penchant for "excessive spending and (fiscal) abuses."

Foley found himself boxed in, others now say. If advancing in local politics was his primary goal, he really didn't have much of a choice. He'd have to be Republican, and he'd have to continue to pretend to be heterosexual.

"In the '80s, if you admitted being a homosexual, that put the kibosh on any political career you might have," said Dr. Bernard Kimmel, a former state legislator and Palm Beach County Republican Party chairman.

"When I was in the legislature, he would come up to visit and he'd always bring women," Kimmel said. "But it was the worst secret in the world."

But you didn't have to fool the insiders, only the voters.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbcsouth/content/local_news/epaper/2006/10/08/m1a_FOLEY_BINO_1008.html