Dan Schnur, the longtime Republican strategist and political pundit who now runs the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, has dropped his Republican Party registration.

Schnur, 49, changed his registration from Republican to “No Party Preference.” The change actually took place two years ago after he left his post as chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission. But Schnur only made it public Monday morning in a posting on the Flash Report, a statewide blog run by former California Republican Party chief Jon Fleischman.

In the posting, which advocated for banning state legislators from fundraising while the Legislature is in session, Schnur said he made the change to lend credibility to his political reform efforts.

“I made the decision not to repudiate a political party of cause, but as a means through which to accomplish necessary reform to a broken political system,” Schnur said in the posting.

Schnur had long been a stalwart in Republican Party circles, serving in several Republican presidential campaigns, including as chief spokesman for Sen. John McCain’s 2000 presidential run. In California, he served as spokesman for the California Republican Party and then for former Gov. Pete Wilson.

The Business Journal interviewed Schnur in its January 21 edition.