The Sacramento Bee published this column today by Ginger Rutland about state Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, who was dumped as GOP leader in the Senate by Republican colleagues during the budget stalemate. Cogdill's crime was agreeing to tax increases among the solutions in the budget package that was finally approved.
Rutland offered this assessment after Cogdill and others appeared before The Sacramento Bee editorial board:
"Looking anything but chastened by that experience, Cogdill offered a spirited defense of his vote. "We didn't have a budget," he told the editorial board, "and without a budget we couldn't participate in the credit markets, and without being able to do that, it literally became a question of how do you keep the lights on and the doors open."
So will voters in Cogdill's San Joaquin Valley Senate district dump him? Here's more from Rutland's column:
"Cogdill has been brutalized by right-wing radio talk show hosts for his budget vote. But the reaction from his own constituents has been mostly positive: "humbling," he says. Phone calls and mail are running 4-to-1 in his favor. Some 300 Republicans gathered in his district for a Lincoln Day celebration recently and gave him a standing ovation."
Elected officials must be free to cast their legislative votes (right or wrong) as they seem fit. If We the People don't like it we never vote for them again. But the political parties must not be allowed to coerce or punish a legislators' vote in the legislature. And that is how ,I ,of We the People feel about it and always have....basta!
What a nice little story about selling out because of "The Pressure".That's why we elect them...to sell us out.On average they raised taxes on families over $1000/yr...that's pressure.I'm sure the lefties at "Duh Bee" gave him a slap on the back,a comfy chair and a cup of coffee when he visited.
The elected representative is free to vote however his conscience directs him. The voters then have the freedom to send someone else in his place.