Lost in the drama of the Democrat co-sponsors trying to have their names removed from unconstitutional HB 1002 last week was an accounting of which Democrats actually voted for the bill.
There were nine such votes, to wit:
- John Catlett*
- Linda Collins-Smith
- John Edwards*
- Barry Hyde
- James McLean
- Nate Steel*
- John T. Vines*
- Tommy Wren
- Marshall Wright
(Additionally, Darrin Williams voted “present.”)
While all of these votes bug me somewhat, the ones marked with an asterisk in the above list are most irritating. Those were Democrats who did not feel the need to sign on as a co-sponsor, even as their colleagues were signing on, but still supported the bill enough that they voted for it while their party was, by and large, fleeing from it.
More troubling, Edwards, Steel, and Vines are all attorneys. Even ignoring the poor economics of the bill, if anyone should have known better than to support this legally flawed measure, it was these three lawmakers. Either none of them stopped to consider the constitutionality, none of them was familiar enough with basic constitutional law to see the flaw, or they just supported the bill regardless; none of those answers is particularly reassuring.