Health & Fitness
When Principles Collide with Practicality
Which will win out in Elk Grove City Councilmembers' upcoming Cap-to-Cap lobbying trip?
Next week the annual Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Cap-to-Cap lobbying trip will leave Sacramento and descend on Washington D.C.
Among the nearly 300 private and public sector people embarking on the trip is the entire Elk Grove City Council, Elk Grove City Manager Laura Gill and former Elk Grove Planning Commissioner Tim Murphy.
The chamber released a laundry list of projects costing $211.3 million that the delegation hopes to secure funding for. There are also several other wish-list items with no specified funding request attached, including everything from “federal help to for fixing Natomas levees” to “funding for Los Rios Colleges to train an additional 75 individuals to be certified home energy auditors.”
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While the securing of federal funds by the delegation would undoubtedly help the region climb out of the hole created by the Great Recession, it will be interesting to see if two members of the Elk Grove Delegation, Councilmember Sophia Scherman and her political protégé, Councilmember Patrick Hume, will adhere to their well-known conservative principles.
Many Elk Grove City Council watchers will recall that Scherman was taken to task by fellow council members Jim Cooper and Gary Davis last year prior to a city lobbying trip to Washington D.C. for not holding Republican Congressmember Dan Lungren’s feet to the fire to secure local funding.
Find out what's happening in Elk Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
At the time, Scherman, a longtime Lungren supporter and fellow Republican, implied that the Elk Grove delegation should be scaled back at Lungren’s request. Davis and Cooper both rejected the idea that Lungren be “let off the hook,” as Davis put it. Now in the majority party, Lungren has repeatedly endorsed the draconian budget cuts proposed by Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan.
So as Scherman and her fellow Republican Councilmember Hume go to Washington D.C. next week, it will be interesting to find out if they adhere to the principles espoused by Ryan, Lungren and other members of the Republican Party or will be practical and use their relationship with Lungren to secure funding for their constituents in Elk Grove.
Who will win in this collision – the principles of the national Republican Party or the practical needs of the people of Elk Grove?
We will see.
