A St. Martin Parish lawmaker has become the latest in the Louisiana Legislature to defect from the Democratic Party and join the GOP.

State Rep. Fred Mills, a pharmacist from St. Martinville, is in his first term at the state House and is planning to run for a vacant state Senate seat in a special January election against Republican state Rep. Simone Champagne of Jeanerette.

Mills says he switched parties because he disagreed with the Democratic-backed federal health care legislation and President Barack Obama's now-lifted moratorium on deepwater oil drilling.

Adding Mills to the House GOP Caucus boosts its membership to 52, putting the party within one vote of a 53-member majority in the chamber for the first time since Reconstruction.

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