Fate takes a hand in whiskey & Wheaties bill as Amy Mercado cares for her parents

Sometimes fate plays that unexpected card that makes all the difference, such as Wednesday when the Florida House of Representatives narrowly approved the controversial “whiskey & Wheaties” bill, allowing whiskey to be sold in grocery stores.

Earlier that day a 30-year-old Monticello man driving in Tallahassee was distracted by a device, didn’t see the red light, and slammed his SUV into the back of a car stopped at the light. Victor and Carmen Torres in that car were injured, and transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Victor Torres happens to be a Democratic state senator from Orlando; but the real connection in this narrative is that he and Carmen are parents of Democratic state Rep. Amy Mercado of Orlando.

Mercado rushed to the hospital to be with her parents, taking leave of the House of Representatives’ session.

In her absence, the House approved Senate Bill 106 by one vote: 58-57, sending it to the desk of Gov. Rick Scott.

The Torreses were eventually released from the hospital, fine, but hurting.

“I have been against the bill from the beginning, so if I was in the chamber today [and not in the hospital with my parents] my vote would have been a no and made it a tie,” Mercado wrote last night on Facebook. “Therefore, my one vote could have killed the bill.”