[Tall_Texan]

This just mentioned on FNC. No other source at this time.

[Bonaparte]

It's about time.

[NYS_Eric]

You just beat me! I saw that. Good news (even though he's already got a pretty conservative voting record). Now if only the redistricting in TX gets past the courts...

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Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
4	Texas	120.00	6	20.00	1,607	0.07	733.00	50

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[NYS_Eric]

Breaking news, perhaps? (If for no other reason than to stop the duplicate posts...)

[Torie]

Actually the new Hall district is a bit more Dem than the old, but does have a lot of new territory for him. Just why Hall was a Dem in any event, since his record largely tracked that of the House majority leader, is not entirely clear to me. In any event, I guess he wants to run for reelection, as the oldest sitting member of the House, and maybe if he hangs on for another decade or so, win the silver, and beat Congressman Greene of Rhode Island, who served I think until he was 91. Of course, the gold in Congress goes to Strom Thurmond, and he will probably hold the gold for near forever.

[billhilly]

This kinda reminds me of Quadafi after Saddam was unearthed. It is interesting to see what incentives are required to cause "leaders" to make the right decisions. Could we call it "Delayed principle syndrome."?

[Dan from Michigan]

More symbolic than anything else. I think he voted for the GOP committees anyway. A DINO.

[CounterCounterCulture]

U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas will be switching parties from Democrat to Republican. He is being pushed into a heavily GOP district with the new boundaries and he is known as a conservative Democrat.

Hmmmm...so....if his district didn't tilt Republican, one could assume he'd stay a Democrat? More about personal survival?

Course I'm a natural-born cynic and maybe he'll be freer to support conservative positions and nominees than as a Democrat. We'll see.

All the best and GO TEXAS!

[Steel Wolf]

Any guesses on how Tom Daschle will feel about this?

(HINT: Rhymes with 'deeply saddened')

[quantim]

Maybe he got a call from Howie Dean looking for support?

[No Dems 2004]

I'm very happy to hear this news!!! It's about time that the Republicans expand their numbers in Texas!!

Congressman Hall has a strong anti-gay and a 100% pro-life voting record. And he seems pretty straight-laced. This, of course, has a positive impact on the GOP's ability to hold the House in future elections. Yahoo!!

[adam_az]

A big freepin' welcome to Rep. Ralph Hall!!

[leadpenny]

http://capwiz.com/c-span/webreturn/?url=http://www.house.gov/ralphhall

[Rhetorical pi2]

One person changing parties won't affect votes and legislation passed measurably in the upcoming session.

However there is this "drip, drip, drip" effect. Congressional DP (democrat party) members begin realize they can't see a light at the end of the tunnel.(Where they will be in the majority again.)

Those who were in office during the days the DP was in the majority see that they may not have those perks amd chairmanships that go with being in control - perhaps for the rest of their lives.

It's at that time that retirement begins to look better, and we may see some major party members begin to retire.
Never getting your legislation passed has got to wear you down after awhile.

For that reason, I enjoy hearing the drip, drip, drip as the DP drains away.

[RoseofTexas]

OH GOODNESS, I can just see the sourpuss faces on the RATS and especially the crew on CNN=Chicken Noodle Network!! AH!

[JohnnyZ]

Welcome to the Party, Ralph.

[RippleFire]

Nancy is not amused

[Beck_isright]

Just damn

[nightowl]

Rep. Ralph Hall-D TX (NOW R-TX) was being challenged in the Dem Primary by Rep. Max Sandlin-D. Ole Max is my current congressman (District 1) & the repubs kicked him outta here in there new redistricting map. Thank goodness. We may get a Republican now. I have no idea who is running for the 1st District seat.

[arasina]

Just for the threcord (thread record):

Congressman Ralph Hall