December 09, 2010 09:37 PM UTC

Ali Hasan Switches Parties

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• by: Colorado Pols

From The Colorado Independent:

Muhammad Ali Hasan, a member of the wealthy and influential Colorado Republican Hasan family and a past state House and treasurer candidate, said he is switching parties. Speaking at the University of Colorado-Boulder on his experience growing up Muslim in the American West and later in conversation with the Colorado Independent, Hasan said he is ending his affiliation with the party for the bigotry he believes has shaped Republican politics over the last year. The FOX News regular and founder of Muslims for Bush  said he met recently with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the controversial Democratic leader won him over…

…Major financial backers of conservative causes and candidates in the state and friends to national GOP leaders and successive Republican presidential administrations, the Hasans have publicly struggled with the post-Bush Palin-era GOP. Matriarch Seeme Hasan during the “Ground Zero Mosque” debate said she didn’t recognize the party. Ali Hasan’s defection comes in the wake of news that state GOP lawmakers will introduce tough Arizona-style immigration legislation and held a high profile hearing on the topic with a slanted roster of experts that featured almost no immigrant rights groups but several with ties to white supremecist organizations.

A hardline fiscal conservative and champion of Constitutional equality, Hasan says Republicans have merely paid lip service to the former and have effectively come to oppose the latter.

This move by Ali isn’t overly important on its own, but taken in a broader context it is significant for Republican politics in Colorado. As the Independent points out, the Hasan family have been major donors to Republicans and GOP causes over the years, and if their line of thinking is heading in the same direction as their son, that’s not good news for Republicans.

(h/t to Polster ardy39)