Between Mike and Us, Lou Correa Called

After NINE DAYS of waiting for an explanation of why Lou Correa voted against SJR 1, the resolution opposing escalation of the Iraq War, Mike Lawson (of The Liberal OC) finally received a call. It was Lou, and he was willing to talk to Mike about his vote.

I got a telephone call from State Senator Lou Correa today. He asked me to keep the conversation between the two of us and to not post it on TheLiberalOC.com, but he agreed that I had every right to share his reasoning if I chose to do so.[...]

Correa said that his “no” vote was a straight-forward thing. “This resolution missed the mark,” he said. “We can’t send the wrong message to our soldiers over there.”

Until Congress makes the decision to bring home our troops, Correa thinks that we should do all that we can to support them—and opposing Bush’s troop surge, in Correa’s eyes, is not supportive.

“Are you going to be calling 250,000 people to tell them what made you vote ‘no’ on SJR1?” I asked, referring to the number of voters that are registered in the 34th State Senate District. “I actually represent more that 850,000 people, Mr. Lawson. Thanks for the call,” he said before hanging up.

Well, I am certainly glad that Lou finally returned Mike's call. And yes, I certainly appreciate that Lou was willing to talk to Mike, and to me, about this. But still, I would feel much better about this if Lou's office were to just give a public statement about this.

If you happen to live in Central Orange County, and you would like to talk to your State Senator about his Iraq vote, go ahead and give his office a call at (916) 651-4034. Senator Correa seems quite willing now to sit down and discuss this with his constituents. : )

(Cross-posted at Calitics)