Monday, May 14th, 2007...7:18 am
When Republicans Can’t Pass Republican Bills…Part 1
Carolyn Allen is ticked off at the Democratic caucus, and the Governor too.
What made her angry was the lack of support from Democrats for a bill she was running that changed the burden of proof in some malpractice cases to beyond a reasonable doubt. She was running a bill on tort reform but thought she was going to get support from a significant number of Democrats. This would be equivalent to Steve Gallardo thinking that he could get Russell Pearce and Karen Johnson to sign on to one of his gun control bills.
I can understand her frustration that her bill went down, but what is interesting is that she has sent angry missives to Democratic members and the Governor raking them over the coals for not supporting her bill. The moderate Allen feels that the Democrats owed her for her support of some Democratic issues in the past.
For some reason, her bile has not been directed at Republican members, including reliable conservatives like Kirk Adams and Jonathan Paton, who voted against the bill. Democratic members I have spoken to described calls that they got supporting the bill (interestingly, the message told Democratic members not to “tow the party line” and were often pretty insulting), but Republican members did not recieve these calls. Either she thought that this would be passed on the backs of Democrats, or she took Republican members for granted.
She couldn’t pass this with Republican votes, on an issue supported by many Republicans, but it’s the Democrats fault. Yeah. I see that.
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