Hopson Hops the Fence

Surprise news this morning: Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville, is switching sides next election and run as a Republican. Even for a conservative Democrat, it's going to be interesting to see whether he'll be conservative enough for the new GOP orthodoxy.

Republicans claim that, with the party switch of seven Hardin county Democratic office holders, this marks a wave. But Hopson's defection arguably doesn't really change anything in the next election. After a 120-vote win in the 2008 general election, Democrats were pretty sure that they were going to lose his seat next time anyway: Just seems they're going to lose it to Hopson. Rep. Aaron Pena, D-Edinburg, (who call Hopson "my dear friend") has already stated that "because of the mood of the country, and the changing political demographics of his district, the Representative may have seen this as his only option to survive a competitive election."

Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie issued a statement saying that, not only was he "extremely disappointed" with Hopson, that voters should "make no mistake … as a rural Democratic elected official who served in rural Texas, I can tell you that if, in fact, Chuck Hopson makes this announcement this afternoon, he will be joining a party that has abandoned rural Texas."

So what might his motivation really be? His claim is that the Obama administration's policies don't represent his district. However, if his voting record is anything to go by, Hopson is going to go from the center-right of the Democrats to the extreme left of the House GOP. Although such scales are specious and used for little more than attack ad fodder, the Heritage Alliance gave him a 30% score on their "How Conservative are you?"-o-meter for his votes this year. Similarly, Hopson got a 45 from Empower Texans on their fiscal responsibility index: That was the second highest score for a Democrat, but still lower than every other Republican. The Young Conservatives of Texas are already lashing out, effectively claiming once a liberal, always a liberal.

Hopson was last seen singing the praises of the eminent domain reforms in Prop. 11. Prior to that, he was busy fulfilling his position in the Lege as chair for the House General Investigating & Ethics Committee, and as floor furniture browsing for hunting equipment on the Internet.