Though she said she might otherwise be “lunching,” Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the American-born baroness spent part of her afternoon defecting – from her political party’s presidential candidate – in full view of the press and a spray of television cameras.

Ms. de Rothschild, a personal friend and prominent backer of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and a member of the committee that helped draft the Democratic Party’s platform, announced on Wednesday that while she intended to keep her party affiliation, she would not be voting for Senator Barack Obama.

“It is the last place in the world I thought I would be in October 2008,” Ms. de Rothshchild, the New Jersey-born businesswoman who married into the British banking family, said at a press conference in Washington, D.C. organized by the McCain campaign.

“We have got to make the right choice about who goes to the White House,” she continued. “So this decision to vote Republican for the first time in my life has been after a lot of thought. I have looked at all four candidates very carefully and I have no question about what I am doing today.”



For months, Ms. De Rothschild been signaling her displeasure with Mr. Obama. In June, she told The New York Times that she could not “fall in line,” behind the Democratic nominee.

And on Wednesday, flanked by four American flags and wearing a McCain pin, she took herself out of line and positioned herself firmly in the G.O.P.’s corner.

“I believe that Barack Obama with MoveOn.org, and Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean have taken the Democratic Party too far to the left,” she said. “I’m not comfortable there.”

Had she talked her decision over with Mrs. Clinton who urged her supporters to stand with Mr. Obama?

“No, no,” said Ms. de Rothschild, smiling and shaking her head. “Not since the convention.”

“I’m sure she is not pleased with what I’m doing today,” she conceded. “But you know what, I have to do what I believe in.”

And though she acknowledged that she and Mr. McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “disagree on some issues,” Ms. De Rothschild declared: “I love Sarah Palin,” adding, “I think she’s pretty cool.”

Ms. de Rothschild, who is the director and C.E.O. of E.L. Rothschild Limited, a British investment firm, spent much of her career as a telecommunications entrepreneur. She served for two years on President Bill Clinton’s advisory council on the country’s information infrastructure during the early 1990’s.

On Wednesday Ms. de Rothschild said she had already informed her family and business colleagues that she intended to spend the rest of the election season actively campaigning for the Republican ticket.

And although she stopped short of quitting her party entirely, Ms. de Rothschild, who ended the press conference by quoting a G.O.P. icon, seemed at least partially converted.

“Right now I feel a little bit like Ronald Reagan who said, ‘I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.’ “