"I’ll oppose higher taxes…" proclaimed then Assemblyman Lou Correa in a letter (see it here) he mailed to Central Orange County voters as he made his case for why he, and not his opponent, should be 
elected to the State Senate. If his promise, emphased in boldfaced text, in a personally signed letter to voters wasn’t emphatic enough, in terms of where Correa promised he would be on tax increases, then there was the glossy full-color mailing, with the words emblazed on the front: "Where I stand on… Taxes." Open up the mailing (see it here), and he says, "I don’t support tax increases without a vote of the people…" — the mailer ends with Correa’s campaign slogan: "A different kind of Democrat."
One has to wonder what kind of treatment Correa is getting, behind the scenes, from the ever-petulant and immature Senate President Don Perata. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, whose demeanor compared to Perata is quite even-keeled, banished her "different kind of Democrat" to a tiny office outside of the Capitol, and killed all of her bills. Is a similar fate in store for Lou Correa if he doesn’t break his word, and his promise to voters, and vote for billions of dollars in new taxes? Unlike Parra, Correa is only mid-way through his first term in the State Senate — and presumably he wants to return for a second term. Breaking a "no taxes pledge" that was as clearly articulated as Correa’s would be a severe impediment to that second four-year term, as Correa won his seat by a narrow margin.
Since I am from Orange County, I actually have a friendship with Senator Correa who, as Democrats go, is a pretty good guy. Just knowing him, his quandary is not centered around electoral concerns — though that certainly is an issue. Correa’s challenge is that he is one of those straight shooters in politics whose word is his bond. He made a promise, and that means something to him (unlike his colleague in the Assembly, Kathleen Galgiani, who made a similar promise to her constituents to oppose taxes, and broke her pledge).
You can tell that Correa has a lot of cache in Orange County, because the table-talk amongst Republicans down here is that Correa won’t go up on any bill that includes the taxes. But I can tell you that there is a resolve here to "take care of business" if he does — meaning the recruiting and funding of a strong anti-tax candidate against Correa in his next run.
We’ll see if Senator Lou Correa can live up to his self-appointed title, and truly be a different kind of Democrat.
Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?
Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.