Yet another Republican has gone Democratic: the District Attorney for my home county of Eau Claire County in Wisconsin. Rich White, DA in Eau Claire County since 2000, has switched and will run as a Democrat on the fall ballot.
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram story
The reason for the switch? Mainly philosophical:
"I was real impressed and decided I was more comfortable filing as a Democrat," he said. "I'm not philosophically on the same plane as the Republican Party."
Now, for what it's worth, it's not as though White has always been a solid right-wing Republican who finally saw the light; he admits he initially ran as a Republican because of the timing of filing to run in 2000 in the wake of the resignation of his predecessor, also a Republican. He also says if the timing was better, he would have run as a Democrat in the first place. From the article:
Then-District Attorney Ray Pelrine, a Republican, announced he was resigning in August 2000, which was after the filing deadline for the 2000 fall election. Pelrine's name was going to be on the ballot despite his resignation.
White determined it would be too difficult to conduct a write-in campaign as a Democrat.
If he wanted to become district attorney, White said, he felt it would be in his best interest to run a write-in campaign as a Republican and seek appointment as district attorney from then-Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican.
White got the appointment and was elected as a GOP write-in candidate.
Had Pelrine left a few months earlier, White said, he probably would have filed as a Democrat.
Nevertheless, the fact is that another Republican has gone Democratic (and, in this case, one who probably was always more ideologically at home with the Dems, not someone merely jumping on the national pro-Dem wave). Combined with the Democrats picking up both State Senate seats that cover the city of Eau Claire in 2006, along with one of Eau Claire's State Assembly seats that same year, it's nice to see my home city/county getting bluer all the time.