New Hampshire lawmaker searches conscience, switches parties

These aren’t the best of days for Democrats, so we have to look for victories wherever we can. Blogger Daily Kos reported yesterday on some welcome news in New Hampshire.

The Granite State is, to be sure, a Republican state. It was the only state north of the Mason-Dixon line to vote for Bush in 2000; it has four lawmakers in Congress, all of whom are Republican; it has a Republican governor and huge GOP majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.

New Hampshire Republicans, however, no longer have State Rep. Corey Corbin.

As Corbin explains in this column, New Hampshire is facing some difficult challenges, but the Republican Party seems unwilling or unable to address them.

“Our state is, arguably, facing some of the worst crises in our history,” Corbin wrote. “We are faced with an ever-widening budget shortfall. The state of education, at every level, is deplorable. Our seniors are finding it more and more difficult to afford health care and prescription drugs. Hospitals are clamoring for qualified nurses, schools are in dire need of teachers, and New Hampshire’s working families need real economic reform and growth in order to maintain a good quality of life. Yet as these issues loom large over the state house, the GOP majority continues to refuse to take the action necessary to ease some of the pain.”

Corbin, who has served two terms in the state legislature as a Republican, went on to list a litany of GOP failures on issues ranging from taxes to education.

“These are not the actions of a party that truly wishes to better the lives of the people it pretends to represent,” Corbin said. “And so, after much deliberation and soul searching, I decided that my efforts were better spent advancing the cause of the common-man. I decided that I would join a party that champions the family, the little guy, the work-a-day people who make this state the great place to live, work and raise our kids we know it to be. I became a Democrat.”

Switching to the Dems in New Hampshire takes chutzpah. Corbin instantly goes from the agenda-setting majority to the overwhelmed minority.

Nevertheless, Corbin should be congratulated for his courage and commitment to principle. Now if he could only convince some of the other 40 million Republicans in America to do the same thing…