John Gibbs, There are some "Republicans in disguise" in the Democratic Party, but Laura Thielen is not one of them.  For example, under her leadership the Senate Committee on Water and Land rejected Governor Ige's nomination of Carleton Ching as Director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.  Environmentalists had asserted that he was not qualified for that position.  They pointed to his membership on the Board of the Land Use Research Foundation, which lobbied against historic preservation and protecting critical habitats and advocated for fast-tracked development that would bypass public and environmental scrutiny.   Realizing that Ching would lose the vote in the full Senate, the Governor withdrew Ching's nomination prior to the vote.  Laura Thielen is a true Democrat.