Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Scott Peters

Written and Submitted by Mary Anne

Years ago, the San Diego City Council was caught up in what was known as the San Diego Pension Scandal where it had voted to underfund the San Diego
pension system. When this was first brought to public attention, instead of fixing the problem, the City Council attacked the whistle-blower Diann Shipione and forced her off the pension board. They then spent approximately $7M in lawyer fees to defend themselves against fraud charges, of which $631,000 was used to defend Councilman Scott Peters. The final judgment? The members were adjudged “negligent” but not criminal.

With that somewhat dubious endorsement, Scott Peters ran for City Attorney a couple of years later and ended up third in the primary. Undeterred he accepted some political appointments and then ran for the U.S. Congress, claiming to be a moderate Democrat only interested in serving San Diego and its military community. He ran against a weakened incumbent congressman in a newly drawn district and managed a victory. Two years later, he ran against the popular reformer Carl De Maio to win a post-election vote-count in an extremely dirty whisper campaign against DeMaio’s admitted homosexuality. (Sorry to say, he was abetted in this by a number of powerful Republicans who, when taxed with this, used as their excuse we Republicans would surely win the next time.) That was four elections ago and the last time Peters faced a serious Republican challenge. In the last two elections, Peters won with over 61%, and the Democrats now consider his once-endangered seat safe.

We should also note that as he has improved his elective position, his stance on political issues has grown increasingly progressive. Once denounced by many of his fellow Democrats as too darned conservative, he now has become a virtual rubber stamp to anything Pelosi wants including:

The Build Better Act (Voted against the original $3.5T package until it included drug cost reductions. Now is a supporter of the bill.)
Abortion on demand
Federalization of voting rules which would include, among several other things, banning voter ID requirements
Banning detention of illegal aliens
Permanent residency for illegal aliens
Path to citizenship for illegal aliens
Banning so-called assault weapons
Supporting the Iran Nuclear Deal

His much-vaunted support of the military is also questionable. To be fair, he has been a strong supporter of Veterans’ causes and the upgrade of some local military facilities, but otherwise seems to spend much of his time supporting LGBTQ and other social justice issues within the military. He is known to have opposed Republican efforts to increase overall military budgets while concentrating on establishing think tanks for reducing the military’s effect on climate change and improving racial/gender equity with the military.

Peters also likes to tout his support for high-quality education, but again a close look at his record indicates an increasingly progressive stance concentrating on gender and LGBTQ accessibility and safety from harassment, student debt, and guns as another safety issue. To date he appears to have not taken a public position on critical race/gender theory, but his constant reference to race and gender within his education statements would indicate that here, too, he’s a true social justice warrior, advocating for equal outcomes instead of equal justice Too, Peters likes to brag of his support for San Diego’s quality of life, but again there’s a caveat. He has supported many of the measures of the Green New Deal that would increase population density and bypass local zoning measures – all in the name of that favorite Democratic bugaboo, climate change. This is in direct opposition to his one-time stance that the Green New Deal was too expensive and did
little to protect the environment. That won him a failing grade from some environmental groups at the time, but he’s now enjoying a 100% rating with the League of Conservation Voters after his most recent votes and his website’s promised sharp reduction in “super pollutants” such as methane. (How many cows does he plan to kill?)

Whatever changed him, he doesn’t want his voters to know about it. In public appearances, he claims to be a moderate, again touting his support for the military and quality education. His website is a bit more truthful, but how many of his long-time moderate supporters will ever check out that source – at least in any depth? It sounds many high-sounding promises like “making schools affordable,” but only in the details does he make it clear that all he wants to do is reduce student loan interest rates and encourage later employers to pay off student debts – not one word against the inexcusable inflation in higher education costs since the Democrats first enacted universal student loan programs. Maybe this is a natural stance for a man who likes to mention his “middle class roots” and talks about how he worked his way through college with the help of student loans. He does not discuss how, after a short stint as an environmental attorney, he managed to become the 11th wealthiest man ($60,456,054 net worth) in Congress by 2018, all as a public servant/politician. Now, four years later, he’s estimated to have a net worth of approximately $200 million according to Celebrity Net Worth. He claims he made his fortune through venture market investing. It seems Nancy Pelosi’s husband isn’t the only one making a lot of money on the stock market. Representative Scott Peters has shown himself to be a real wolf in sheep’s clothing, dressing himself as an only slightly-left-than-center middle-class Democrat but now voting his Party’s far-left-line on virtually every issue. As such he should be ranked as one of the most hypocritical members of Congress in saying one thing and voting another. It’s time to get rid of these hypocrites. Vote Corey Gustafson for the 50th Congressional District.

References:

2021 Voting Record:

Dependable Democrat Vote for Biden/Pelosi

-Included votes for unlimited abortion rights, federalization of voting rules, path to permanent residency

for illegal aliens, and the carious Democrat tax/spending legislation including Build Back Better.

Other Issues:

Scott Peters Governmental Website

Scott Peters Campaign Website

Environment:

League of Conservation Voters Scorecard: 100%

Abortion:

Votes to Support Abortion on Demand