A Republican Bexar County judge who narrowly won his election in 2010 announced today that he will run next year as a Democrat.
In a written statement, Judge Carlo Key of San Antonio, who is running for re-election to County Court Position 11 in San Antonio, cited ideological extremism as the reason for his departure from the Republican Party of Texas.
Key won the 2010 election with nearly 52 percent of the vote against his Democratic opponent, Jo Ann De Hoyos, who secured 48 percent of the vote, but says his one-time party is now at war with itself.
"I refuse to be a member of a party that prefers ideological purity over devotion to the rule of law," Key said in a statement. "Pragmatism has given way to pettiness and bigotry in the Republican Party. That is why I am announcing that I will now run for re-election as the Democratic nominee."
