Posted on 10/22/2013 2:48:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Bexar County court-at-law judge elected during the “red tide” of 2010 is switching parties.
Standing at the foot of the Bexar County Courthouse steps, County Court-at-Law No. 11 Judge Carlo Key said Monday that he is joining the Democratic Party and will seek re-election as a Democrat in November 2014.
“Make no mistake, I did not leave the Republican Party, it left me,” said Key, flanked by high-ranking Democrats. “My principles have led me to the Democratic Party, and my only hope is that more people of principle will follow me.”
While he's been considering the decision for several weeks, it was the recent federal government shutdown that caused Key to seriously consider switching parties.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said that “in the past few weeks, you've seen the ugly face of the Republican Party that is more interested in taking care of their primary base than in taking care of Americans and Texans.”
The 16-day government shutdown appears to have affected Americans' opinions of the GOP: According to a CNN poll conducted over the weekend, just over half of the public oppose the party's control of the House of Representatives, and more than six in 10 people surveyed think House Speaker John Boehner should lose his job.
Key, 38, a native of Marshall, was an attorney before he joined the wave of Republican judges who won seats in 2010, when all but one of the new county judges elected that year were Republicans. Key is a 2002 graduate of the Baylor Law School.
He has pitted himself against the law enforcement community by forbidding testimony that a horizontal gaze nystagmus test — in which an officer uses a pen or finger to track involuntary eye movements — indicates intoxication. This summer, Key learned that he would face a challenger in the Republican primary: Julie Wright, a prosecutor married to a police officer.
His announcement came just days after another Bexar County Republican left the party. Last week, Therese Huntzinger, 55, announced that she will run for district attorney after recasting herself as a Democrat. Huntzinger, a criminal defense attorney who could face 15-year incumbent Susan Reed in the general election, ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a district judge seat in 1998.
Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Medina said two other judges who attended a recent Democratic Party event could also make the switch in the near future, and U.S. Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-San Antonio, said he expects more to follow Key and Huntzinger.
“The Republican Party is catering to such a narrow ideological base,” he said, “and many Texans are realizing that the Democratic Party is a better choice. The Texas Republican Party is going backward in respect to Latino issues. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Robert Stovall, the Bexar County Republican Party chairman, said that was “absolutely not true.” Republicans “hold the values that have made Texas great,” he said, adding that there have also been recent defectors to the Republican Party.
“The American public as a whole is frustrated with a lack of leadership, and it's pure deadlock,” Stovall said. “(U.S. Sen. Ted) Cruz is doing an excellent job trying to take control, so we've got some good, solid leadership, but it's obvious that the American public is frustrated.”
Democratic leaders said Republicans are inching away from Hispanic voters and further to the right of the political spectrum by doing things such as threatening to repeal the Texas DREAM Act and forcing the government to shut down.
“I cannot tolerate a political party in which hate speech elevates a candidate to higher office rather than disqualifies them,” Key said, “and I cannot condone a party which values ideological purity over devotion to rule of law.”
At an early-voting event, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said Key's decision was a “mistake.”
“We've had several former Democrats become Republican since I've been speaker, and that's a tide I would like to see continue and try to encourage,” he said. “But everybody has to make that decision on their own.”
Political pendulum swings, while somewhat unusual, aren't unheard of.
Former Court-at-Law Judge Karen Crouch, who was unseated in 2010 as a Democrat and lost in a race for the 166th District Court in 2012, switched to the Republican Party this year and is seeking election for County Court-at-Law No. 10.
In 2010, two Democratic state representatives, Aaron Peña of Edinburg and Allan Ritter of Nederland, switched to the Republican Party.
Gov. Rick Perry spent his first six years in the Texas House as a Democrat before he became a Republican and was elected in 1990 as agriculture commissioner. Former Sen. Phil Gramm served as a Democratic congressman for several years before he was kicked out of the House Budget Committee for supporting President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts. In protest, he resigned his seat, changed parties and won the seat back in a special election. The next year, he ran against now-Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and won election to the Senate.
On Monday, Doggett addressed Key's announcement in an emailed statement.
“The Republican Party today is like a canoe that's tilting dangerously too far to the right. The folks thrown in the water didn't 'leave it,' they were dumped,” he said.
many Texans are realizing that the Democratic Party is a better choice.
huh?
horizontal gaze nystagmus has been discredited for DECADES.
This is misreorting the law.
No credible judge ever allows it at trial because it is EASILY manipulated.
“I cannot tolerate a political party in which hate speech elevates a candidate to higher office rather than disqualifies them,” Key said, “and I cannot condone a party which values ideological purity over devotion to rule of law.”
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methinks this Judge qualifies for ObamaPsychCare
Don’t you just love how judges now serve political forces over the constitution. VOTE THIS SCUMBAG OUT!
>>Key said, “and I cannot condone a party which values ideological purity over devotion to rule of law.”
So he became a DEMOCRAT? Obviously, this “judge” does not understand what law is.
He first ran for elective office in 2010, and now in 2013 he portrays his switching parties as the party having left him.
I wonder if he knows how lame that sounds.
many Texans are realizing that the Democratic Party is a better choice.”
Probably true if you live in San Antonio or Houston and you want to get elected to public office. Largely Hispanic and sanctuary cities. Austin is pure liberal. Don’t know about Dallas.
Dallas is very liberal as well.
I guess he perceives the dems as ultimately the winning team.. while the cancer of liberalism is spreading and choking out the life of much of the country, it’s not quite so in Texas... yet.
He likely recognizes the purety of the One.
I lived in TX when 100% of elective offices were held by Democrats, except for Sen. John Tower. TX turned Republican, and even former Gov. John Connolly turned Republican. Pretty soon, TX was almost 100% Republican. Ann Richards was an anomoly. The same people stayed in office at the County levels, they just changed Party labels. So, it is not a stretch to see them turn back.
Bexar County is blue (51.5% Obama in 2012 vs. 47% Romney), so these judges are just being finger-in-the-wind types. (http://elections.bexar.org/Reports/PDF/20121106_ElectionTotals.HTM)
Bull. If he were a "real" Republican, the idea of a smaller government would have had him cheering them on.
Sorry. Ain't buying his bogus excuse. Either he ran as a Republican just to get elected, or the guy has some serious skeletons in his closet (maybe he's a closet homo).
Nobody cares about the government shut down. 99% of America probably didn't even notice.
he should be impeached for Uninspired Plagiarism.
He was always a Democrat. he just ran as a Republican because he thought he needed to. Nothing but a Hispanic panderer.
What “principles” is he promoting by joining the Democrats? Seems like he thinks the Dems are in the winning position here and therefore he wants to join them.
I loved Dick Cheney’s interview last night with Bill O’Reilly. He cheered for Ted Cruz and lambasted the POTUS as being the extremist. He did so by quoting he “Anointed One” himself about radically transforming the USA.
With unemployment so high, especially with the youth, I think the younger generation will soon see that they were hoodwinked by “the establishment”. The conservatives and TP movement will not seem so out of touch then.
Here we have yet another low information politician who believes feelings and wishes for his version of a "perfect" society trumps science, biology, economic theory, and natural law!
Democrats believe in global warming caused by you (not the Sun); they believe that men and women are interchangeable; Democrats need not budget, just tax and spend; Democrats use the power of the government to punish their "enemies" (you), especially if you are a WWII or Vietnam veteran.
Democrats need not to read bills to blindly support them before and after passage, like the Affordable Care Act.
Rolling over Christians and killing babies avoids the responsibility of raising children and saves money. Death panels get rid of old people and saves money. Having no budget, just mindless spending is a good strategy for Democrats because they can blame Bush!
By becoming a Democrat his playbook is simplified: name calling, raising taxes, and playing the blame game. What a deal!
Satan is proud of Key and the Democrat Party.
“My principles have led me to the Democratic Party....
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That would be a lack of principles, then. Did he become homo?
Coward
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