Republican Senator Who Voted With Democrats on Gun Control Receives Ricin Letter

Last updated on April 19th, 2013 at 07:00 pm

One of the 16 Republicans who voted with Democrats on the gun control bill was targeted with a deadly ricin letter.

CNN reported that, “An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin was intercepted Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol’s off-site mail facility in Washington, congressional and law enforcement sources tell CNN. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was told the letter was addressed to the office of Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi. After the envelope tested positive in a first routine test, it was retested two more times, each time coming up positive, the law enforcement source said. The package was then sent to a Maryland lab for further testing.”

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At first it might seem odd that the junior senator from the deep red state of Mississippi was targeted, but Wicker was one of 16 Senate Republicans who joined with all but two members of the Democratic caucus in voting to advance the enhanced background checks bill in the Senate. CNN also reports that a suspect has been identified in the case, and there could be any number of reasons why Wicker was targeted, but it is not an illogical assumption that the poison letter could be tied to the vote.

Sen. Wicker has on occasion broken with his party, but he is a mostly down the line Republican vote. Wicker has voted for recognizing the Christianity in Christmas, and voted against hate crimes legislation, so he is not exactly the sort of renegade that would inspire violence from someone within his own party. (In the 112th Congress Wicker has a liberal score of 0, and a conservative score of 75. This means that he votes with the liberals 0% of the time and the conservatives 75% of the time in the Senate.)

However, his vote to move the enhanced background checks bill forward was a big deal on the right.

It could have been a deranged Mississippi Democrat, or even a high school science teacher who has broken bad, but Sen. Wicker took a very unpopular vote with the far right recently, so it isn’t unfathomable that it and the poison letter could be related.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association