The news that Democratic Senate President Leroy Garcia is considering voting against the unpopular Red Flag legislation that would give law enforcement the tools necessary to confiscate guns from people who might be a harm to themselves or others is surprising. Could he possibly be seeing the light? Does he recognize that this bill in particular does little to provide mental health aid?
Nope.
He’s just being selfish. Really.
Here’s the scoop that a loyal Peak reader sent us. Garcia isn’t voting against the Red Flag bill because he’s morally conflicted. He’s voting against the bill to screw over fellow Democratic Sen. Kerry Donovan. Basically, according to our source, there was no reason for him to show his hand earlier this week except that Donovan was starting to soften on the bill (possibly because of this ridiculous video). Garcia has no intention of killing the bill – he wants it to pass. But he wants the perception that Donovan is the deciding vote. Either way, it could be bad news for Donovan, depending on polling, and it puts her in a bad spot.
Why would Garcia want to throw one of his own – and someone under his leadership – under the bus like this? It all comes down to politics, PeakNation.
If he can make her take the blame for killing this bill, she loses any chance of challenging him to be the next U.S. Congressional candidate to lose to Scott Tipton in the Third Congressional District.
There you have it. Garcia isn’t some kind of profile in courage. He’s just utterly selfish. After all, if he was a profile in courage, he would have used his political capital to slow down or kill the oil and gas bill that threatens nearly 250,000 jobs – some of which are in his district. As it stands, he’s just a another self-serving politician taking advantage of Donovan’s weakness. All around a terrible showing for Democrats.