Wanda Hurt, a longtime Democratic activist who three years ago staged a political coup to become president of the Columbia Democratic Club in hopes of winning a seat in the House of Delegates, has become a Republican.
"My whole family is Republican," said Ms. Hurt, 52, who joined the GOP on Jan. 18. "And when I campaigned door to door [last year], people kept telling me, 'You sound like a Republican.' In terms of core philosophies, I guess I've been a Republican all along."
If so, the party never noticed. Ms. Hurt is a former president of the Columbia Democratic Club and was the club's nominee as Democrat of the Year in 1991.
Although she had never tried for public office until last fall's bid to represent east Columbia in the House of Delegates, Ms. Hurt showed enough political muscle in 1992 to leapfrog into the Columbia Democratic Club presidency.
She did that by winning endorsement from then County Councilwoman Shane Pendergrass and former club President James B. Kraft. With those endorsements in hand, Ms. Hurt and her slate were elected to club offices by a wide margin over the slate prepared by the club's nominating committee.
Ms. Hurt had hoped to use the club presidency as a steppingstone to Annapolis this year. But club members became so divided after the coup that neither she, Ms. Pendergrass, nor any other candidate in the east Columbia delegate race was able to win the club's endorsement last July.
Ms. Pendergrass went on to beat Ms. Hurt and two other candidates in the September primary and win one of two east Columbia seats in the General Assembly.
Yesterday, Ms. Pendergrass said she and Ms. Hurt "haven't been particularly close since the election" and did not discuss Ms. Hurt's plans to defect to the Republicans.
"She worked hard in my [County Council] campaign and for me, and I consider her a friend," Ms. Pendergrass said. "But that is not to say we discuss every decision. She's her own person."
Mr. Kraft said Ms. Hurt had not discussed the switch with him either.
"It's a shame to lose her to the Republicans," he said, "but I respect her for looking in the mirror and saying [the Democratic Party] is not where I belong. It took a lot of nerve. . . . The Republicans are getting a good worker."
But Democratic Central Committee Member George L. Layman,
who succeeded Ms. Hurt as president of the Columbia Democratic Club, feels differently. He thinks the Republicans are more likely getting a headache.
"The Republicans will find that she is very difficult to work with and that she is not a team player," Mr. Layman said.
Mr. Lyman added that he doubts Ms. Hurt has had a philosophical conversion and that Republicans and Democrats "are 180 degrees apart" on most issues.
"This change was not for philosophy but for Wanda," he said. "She blames [Democrats] for her loss in the primary and thinks the Republicans will elect her in 1998."
Allan H. Kittleman, chairman of the local Republican Central Committee, said he is pleased that Ms. Hurt has become a Republican, but is noncommittal about whether the party will support her political ambitions.
"She has a lot of good friends in the party and we're very pleased that she switched," he said, but Republican support in a future political campaign "really depends on her. It was smart to make the move now because she has four years to prove she is really involved and show commitment."
Mr. Kittleman noted that the local GOP "has done very well" with a couple of other former Democrats. County Executive Charles I. Ecker and Circuit Court Clerk Margaret D. Rappaport both upset entrenched incumbents after switching to the GOP in 1990.
Carole Fisher, chairwoman of the local Democratic Central Committee, predicted that Ms. Hurt will be uncomfortable in her new political attire.
"She told me she was uncomfortable staying here [with Democrats], and I told her, 'If you think you're more comfortable there, try it,' " Ms. Fisher said. "But the things she cares about most -- handgun control and reproductive choice -- are not the things Republicans care about."
Mr. Kittleman doubts Ms. Hurt will be uneasy. Republicans "live in a big tent," he said. "Not too many Republicans I know are so one-sided" as to reject Ms. Hurt.
For now, Ms. Hurt is just trying to find her place. "They've been just as wonderful as can be," she said of the Republicans. "They've been very open. I'm very pleased. . . . I don't subscribe to the entire Republican 'Contract with America,' but I do believe in less government and I do believe in the privatization of a lot of issues, and in welfare reform."
Ms. Hurt said the party switch marks a return to the values of her father, whom she describes as a Republican activist.
Her departure from family tradition came only after she shook hands with President John F. Kennedy when she was a teen-ager.
"It may not sound good, but sometimes you move forward without reflection," Ms. Hurt said. "If it had not been for the election and running in the primary, I might have stayed a Democrat for the next 50 years or so without thinking about it."