Political news roundup:

U.S. Congressman Ralph Hall (D-TX) officially changed parties to the GOP Friday. The 80-year-old Hall, known as a conservative "Blue Dog" Democrat, was one of the conservative Democrats targeted by GOP redistricting this past summer, and his Rockwall district is now home to a large number of East Texans who Hall has never met nor represented. This fall, while mulling whether to run for re-election, Hall told reporters "If it got to where me being a Democrat hurt my district, I'd switch [parties]. ... I wouldn't be uncomfortable in either party."

In Pennsylvania, a flip from the other side of the aisle: state Treasurer Barbara Hafer, a former GOP candidate for governor, has returned to the Democratic party following an extended rapproachment with Dem politicians such as Governor Ed Rendell and Presidential candidate John Kerry. Hafer, who is serving the second of two possible terms as Treasurer, is now thought to be preparing for a run against GOP Senator Rick Santorum in 2006.

In Wisconsin, Wesley Clark's state campaign director Julie Stauch has left the Clark campaign under largely unknown circumstances. Stauch, an experienced political operative who ran Bob Graham's Iowa campaign prior to joining Clark, has not commented on the reasons she left the campaign.

The Sioux City Journal reports that Northwest Iowan voters might not be prepared to follow Dean through the primaries. Voters are "increasingly concerned over some [Dean] gaffes that resulted in backpedaling" and ask questions about his electability:

Dean has brought in a huge influx of formerly apathetic young voters. That is great, [Shelby County Democratic Party chairwoman Donna] Clothier said, but she said she wonders about whether they will help the county, state and national Democratic parties. Labeling the young Dean supporters "hangers-on, rather than dedicated," she opined, "they are not the people who will go out and work. It is just like a game for these young people."

Clothier said Gephardt had visited Harlan three times and made a strong impression. The key thing, Clothier said, is to nominate someone who can defeat President Bush. She said she has doubts about how Dean would fare in southern states.

From the Dean camp, NYT chief political correspondent Adam Nagourney, whose dispatches from the Democratic front lines have been critical in boosting support for the Vermont governor, says that negative campaigning in Iowa will hurt only the frontrunner. A typical Nagourney passage:

At one point here this week, Howard Dean, a leader in many polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, begged the party's national chairman to step in and end the attacks against him that he said could end up serving only the White House, should he be his party's nominee. The plea earned him mocking rebukes from his opponents, including a sarcastic warning from Senator Joseph I. Lieberman that Dr. Dean would "melt" in the glare of a White House attack.