I really want to Republican Hillsborough County Commissioner like Al Higginbotham. I really do. His friends, like Commissioner Mark Sharpe, Matt Blair, and Todd Pressman are my friends.
But Commissioner Higginbotham doesn’t make it easy.
Two months after casting a vote against a sensible domestic partnership registry, Higginbotham has a fundraising event scheduled for Tuesday night that leaves me scratching my head. It’s scheduled at Shooters World, a new gun range and retailer on Fletcher Avenue in Tampa.
I get it that Higginbotham is a Republican and this naturally means he needs to put the Second Amendment above all of the other amendments. Especially if Higginbotham wishes to appeal to the conservatives in Burgin-Storms country of rural East Hillsborough.
Yet, and maybe I am being waaayyy oversensitive here, is right now, with the raging debate about gun control and gun violence, the time to have a fundraiser at a gun range of all places?
There are a hundred other types of venues for Higginbotham to schedule a fundraiser — bars, community centers, dining halls, restaurants. A hundred other places where there aren’t guns nearby.
Again, I understand Higginbotham is a Republican and he needs to win a Republican primary. But, eventually, he will be running against a Democrat, in a county which just went for Barack Obama by 29,000 votes. Being insensitive on gun control and gun violence, even if its just a matter of optics, will end up hurting Higginbotham.
If only one of Al’s friends would tell him that.
