Utah House Rep. Eric Hutchings, D-Kearns, is now Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns.
Hutchings, who was appointed by the Salt Lake County Democratic Party last summer to the empty District 38 seat, said Thursday he is switching parties and will run in 2002 as the Republican incumbent.
"This is a core ideological decision," said Hutchings, who met with House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, and newly appointed state GOP executive director Scott Simpson to make the announcement.
"I hope (Eric) can sleep at night," said Democratic State Party Chairwoman Meg Holbrook, "after what the Republicans in the Legislature just did to children, public education and the elderly" in the 2002 general session that ended at midnight Wednesday.
Hutchings replaced former Rep. Gary Cox, D-Kearns, a West Jordan police officer and conservative Democrat who resigned after being promoted to a higher rank in his department. Hutchings said he and Cox are good friends, and when Cox asked him to succeed him, he decided to move from being a community activist who had never been involved in partisan politics to the partisan Utah Legislature.
"But when I got up here, I had to set some core political values. And I just fit" better with Republicans, Hutchings said.
Twelve years ago, former state Rep. Hugh Rush, also from the west side of Salt Lake County, jumped from the Democratic to the Republican party. GOP leaders cleared the decks for Rush in the next election — no one challenged him within his new party. But Democrats went after Rush with a good, well-financed candidate to make a point — and Rush was beaten.
"We will run a good candidate against Eric," vowed Holbrook, who added Democrats aren't vindictive. "He is a good man but naive politically."
Hutchings' switch means almost nothing to the internal politics of the Utah House. This year's general session is over and Republicans will move from a 51-24 majority to a 52-23 majority.
Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch, who for years ran the county Democratic Party, said Hutchings is an opportunist who jumped parties because Republicans in the Legislature hurt him in redistricting last year.
Hutchings' district had the biggest swing in partisan makeup of any of the 75 House districts — it became 8 percentage points more Republican as GOP lawmakers moved Kearns Democratic voters out and GOP voters in by shifting the district boundaries. It is now 56 percent Republican, Democratic Party figures show.
"Some have said I'm opportunistic," said Hutchings, 32, who faces his first election campaign ever this year. "If I am, I'm a pretty dumb one. Redistricting made my election much tougher" because he has new constituents now. "I had to stand up for what I believe in (in switching parties), win or lose."
Stephens, who himself is struggling with deciding whether he will run for office and the speakership again or retire, said he considers Hutchings the GOP incumbent in the seat. "And I personally will discourage other (Republicans) from challenging him. I will personally give (campaign money) to him." But Stephens said it's unlikely Hutchings will get House PAC money before the GOP nominee is picked in that district.
Simpson said the state party will officially stay neutral until the nominee is chosen, "then we will fully support whoever that is."
But clearly Stephens and Simpson are as pleased by Hutchings' party switch as Holbrook and Hatch are disappointed.
Said Hatch: "He should do the honorable thing and resign his seat. He was not elected by the voters; he was picked by the county Democratic Party. If he doesn't want to be in the party, then the seat should be held by another Democrat — as the voters chose in the last election — for the next nine months. In Rush's case, he was elected, then switched, so he could argue the voters wanted him. Hutchings can't say that."
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