Garcia Ouster Blow to GOP

There was a very short time span last week from the time when Face the State first uncovered that Rep Michael Garcia was facing ethics charges relating to sexual misconduct to the time that Garcia subsequently resigned. And lost amongst the weeds in the story was the more compelling story that GOP leaders are privately upset about Garcia’s departure.

He was generally considered a reliable vote right down the middle of most issues.

“He was a good vote for [the GOP]. Now we’ll get a liberal ‘school-crat’ who will be in the pockets of the teachers’ unions. And we’ll lose him moving to the Senate next year as well,” said one GOP legislator.

When asked about the prospect of contesting either Garcia’s vacated House District 42 in the general election or Garcia’s target seat in Senate District 29 another GOP leadership type said: “No I don’t think you’ll see much more than token candidates in either place. The Senate district is a very tough district for us. Under the right circumstances a Hispanic Republican could take the house seat.”

But if Romney faces Obama in the general election, then you can forget it.

“If you ran a Hispanic candidate in that race with a McCain-Clinton presidential race in the general election you might have the opportunity to win House 29 under a lot of circumstances unlikely to happen anytime soon.”

Could those circumstances happen under Romney's candidacy?

"No.But it's not that likely with McCain either."