Yesterday, seven elected Democrats in Hardin County, TX switched parties and became Republicans (via the Texas GOP web site):
Austin – The Republican Party of Texas is pleased to welcome several Democratic officeholders who switched parties today and became Republicans. Today in Hardin County, seven Democrats announced that they are switching parties to become Republicans. The new Republicans include Sheriff Ed Cain, County Judge Billy Caraway and Precinct 4 Commissioner Bobby Franklin. And at noon Tuesday in Palo Pinto County, Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace Bobby Hart switched his party affiliation and became a Republican. Three other Palo Pinto County Democratic officeholders indicated a strong interest in switching parties.
Rick vs. Kay noted that Governor Perry weighed in and welcomed the new Republicans to the party. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, on the other hand…
I didn’t see Kay weigh in probably because it undercuts her message about the Republican Party of Texas suffering and shrinking and being in need of a bigger tent that only she and not Rick can provide…
You know who else didn’t weigh in either — the kids at Burnt Orange Report, who are the go-to-guys for Democrat-related blogging in the state of Texas.
Nor have they noted that “across Texas, more than 50 elected officials or candidates for local offices have decided to jump the political fence, switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican, the state Republican party says.” (link via the Beaumont Enterprise).
I guess Hardin County was somewhat of a lost cause for Democrats anyhow — hell, even President Obama only won 19% of the vote in the county.
Anyway…you Dems can have Arlen Specter (at least until he loses to Republican Pat Toomey in the 2010 election). We’ll keep these local Texans.
(hat tip to Blue-Dot-Blues)
Wow.
I am suspicious of anyone who switches parties under these circumstances. They always say they are doing it for reasons of conscience, but somehow when the Democrats were on the ascendancy their consciences never bothered them. So it really just looks like a bunch of rats deserting a sinking ship.
And just how conservative are these new “Republicans” going to be, anyway? Switching from Democrat to RINO isn’t much of a change.
I think this is really telling, actually, about the state of the Democratic party nationally. We’re talking about rural yellow dog Democrats, conservative as all get-out but whose families have been Democrats since Reconstruction. This is a really historic move in Hardin, Palo Pinto, and McCulloch counties. I think people forget, it wasn’t very long ago that Texas was a Democrat state. It was thanks to John Tower and Ronald Reagan that the face of the Republican Party began to change in Texas, but for a long, long time, rural Dems held on to their identity because of history. You know it must be bad if they’re changing parties. And most of them are elected officials who, because of state law, are elected by partisan vote, but whose positions are not necessarily partisan in nature.
This is exciting news, and in my opinion it is more important for Texas Republicans and conservatives than what happened in New Jersey and Virginia.
Also, BOR hasn’t chimed in because these aren’t “their” kind of Dems. BOR is a far-left liberal blog, and I doubt those writers have much in common with a Hardin County sheriff.
Count the State Rep. from Jacksonville as a GOP convert.
[...] The Beaumont Enterprise is also reporting that 43 other Democrats have abandoned the party in Texas, and joined the Grand Old Party, according to Urban Grounds. [...]