File
this under "Things I did not know until today":
[Rick] Perry, after all, entered the Texas House in 1984 as a Democrat. He won reelection as a Democrat in 1986 and 1988, the same year he served as state chairman of Al Gore’s presidential campaign.
h/t: Dave Weigel.
6:12 PM PT: Josh Nelson has a ton more on this, and points out the irony of Perry having apparently decided to run because of Mitt Romney's acknowledgment that climate change is real.