Lots of chatter out there about at-large Greensboro City Council candidate Ryan Shell’s decision to change his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. Now the Rhino’s John Hammer weighs in, noting how strange it was that Shell criticized two prominent local Republican women — council members Trudy Wade and Mary Rakestraw — while speaking to the Greensboro Republican Women’s Club.

It makes me no never mind which party Shell is affiliated with because he more than likely wouldn’t have gotten my vote anyway. As Hammer notes, Shell —- even when he was still a Republican — did “a pretty good job of touting the Democratic Party line,” talking “like more government involvement is the solution to problems.”

Obviously Shell thought there was some political advantage to switching parties, which in my mind totally undercuts the argument that nonpartisan races somehow take the “politics” out of politics. Which in turn makes the successful effort to turn the Forsyth County school board races nothing more than a power grab by liberals who are tired of Republicans in control of a very smooth-running — and fiscally conscious —- school system.

By the same token, a partisan city council doesn’t seem to have done Winston-Salem much good, considering the fact that Democrats control the current council. Though the upcoming election should be interesting once the primaries shake out, it’s still disappointing that no Republican stepped to challenge Mayor Allen Joines despite a couple of ready-made campaign issues.