Some of Our Best Friends Are Ex-Republicans

News is out this a.m. that the president of the Wake County Republican Mens Club, Chris Mintz, a Raleigh financial planner, is changing his registration to Democrat and plans to run for a seat in the N.C. House currently held by a five-term Republican incumbent.

Oh my.

"The Republican Party appears to be going further and further to the right," Mintz said. "It's really not the party for me any longer. I'm not bitter. I have a lot of friends who are Republicans. I think we are ignoring issues that are important -- like education, economic development and health care," he said.

Not that Mintz is being welcomed with open arms by Wake County Democratic Party pooh-bahs, since if Mintz files to run as a Democrat for the House seat, it will force a primary on the favored candidate, Ty Harrell, a 35-year-old Duke University fund-raiser, who has already announced plans to run for the seat. Harrell was finance director for Erskine Bowles in 2002 and was Howard Dean's southern regional finance director last year.

Oh my again. Much as we tend to love and honor fugitive slaves from the red state of mind, Mintz would be well advised not to run against Harrell, wouldn't he?