Koch, citing abortion, is no longer a Democrat

Feb. 08--QUINCY -- It was a long time coming, but Tom Perez gave Tom Koch the final push out of the Democratic Party.

Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman, caused a stir across the country last spring when he said there is no room in the party for people who are "pro-life" -- who oppose allowing abortion. Koch, the Quincy mayor and a Democrat since age 18, heard him loud and clear.

"I said, 'OK, I guess that's the last straw for me," Koch said Wednesday, the first time he talked publicly about the decision to leave the party.

Koch changed his registration shortly after Perez's comments, leaving a Democratic Party he felt had moved too far left, particularly on the topic of abortion.

"The party platform is so far left on abortion it's sickening," he said.

Koch knows the date of the decision on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion across the United States. He was 10 years old, but he remembers it being important to his parents, and it remained so with him.

"It was a big issue in my house," he said.

In the ensuing years, his father, Richard, would stop working actively with then-Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's campaign when Kennedy became "pro-choice," supporting abortion rights.

Koch is a devout Catholic, and he references his faith often when explaining his rationale for decisions.

"I'm certainly a believer in life starts at conception," he said.

Quincy's voter registration numbers tilt heavily Democratic. The city has 22,569 registered Democrats to 5,086 Republicans. However, the largest number of voters are unaffiliated with a party: 31,442 of the city's 60,117 registered voters.

Koch said both the Democratic and Republican parties have drifted away from the center, and he thinks that's a shame.

"I think both parties are going very much extreme," he said. "You have to govern from the middle."

He said he remains a big supporter of Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, a centrist from South Boston who represents Quincy.

It's no secret that Koch, a man with a penchant for quoting John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan alike, has voted Republican before. He publicly has supported Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, whom he counts as a political ally.

Even though Baker is a member of the more conservative of the two parties, he's pro-choice, putting him somewhere to the left of Koch on the issue.

As measured annually by the Gallup polling service, national opinions on abortion haven't changed much since Roe v. Wade. Last year, 29 percent of people said it should be legal in all circumstances, and 18 percent agreed with Koch in saying it should be illegal in all circumstances. Far larger than either, at 50 percent, was the group that said it should be legal under some circumstances. When Gallup asked that group further questions, two-thirds of them said it should be illegal in most, with the other third saying it should be legal in most.

The national Democratic Party's official position is to support women's access to "safe and legal abortion," which the party considers crucial to women's reproductive health. The national Republican Party doesn't completely oppose abortion outright, but it does wish to heavily restrict it, saying that's the best way to protect "the rights of the unborn."

In Massachusetts, abortion is legal in all cases up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. After that, it's allowed in limited cases, such as when the life of the mother is in danger. Other states have laws that restrict abortion further than that.

Mayoral elections in Quincy are nonpartisan, so this change doesn't affect in any way the candidacy of Koch, who was first elected in 2007.

Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Easton, said he doesn't believe this will have any effect on Koch's support in Quincy.

"He's kind of safely occupied a middle ground in Massachusetts politics," Ubertaccio said. "I don't think most people in Quincy are going to bat an eyelash."

Koch is a big supporter of government investment in infrastructure and strong public services, areas that are traditional Democratic focuses. Ubertaccio said there used to be more room in the Democratic Party for blue-collar Democrats like Koch who are more socially conservative, but the party in recent years has put an increased importance on progressive positions on social issues.

"He's an old-style what we used to call 'lunch-bucket Democrat,'" Ubertaccio said.

Reach Sean Cotter at scotter@ledger.com and 617-786-7049.

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