Congressional Loyalty Scorecards: Stem Cell Update

by Chris Bowers, Wed May 25, 2005 at 07:11:42 AM EDT

As promised, here are the updated Congressional Loyalty Scorecards after yesterday's stem cell vote:

Caucus Comparison
Republican Loyalty: 94.5% (96.1%)
Democratic Loyalty: 83.4% (82.5%)

The Stem Cell vote closed the gap from 13.6% to 11.1%, a noticeable swing because of just one vote.

Democratic Sub-Groups
Progressives: 97.3% (97.3%)
Non aligned: 85.2% (NA)
DLC: 80.7% (79.0%)
Blue Dogs: 57.1% (54.3%)
Non-Blue Dogs: 88.9% (88.3%)

At 97.3% the Progressive caucus had very little room for growth. Also, Marcy Kaptur voted against the bill, for some reason. Non-Blue Dog Democrats are now very close to the Republican caucus in terms of voting loyalty, with only a 4.6% gap separating them. "Non-aligned" is a new group. It is composed of the ninety Democratic members of the House that are not members of one of the three ideological caucuses

Yesterday's vote was huge. It showed that Democrats can still wedge Republicans in the House. It showed that Democrats could potentially pass significant legislation in the House even with a slim majority. It reduced the number of seats needed for a true majority by eleven. It is gonna fore Bush to veto, an action for which there will be political fallout. If only we could have a victory like this everyday.

Tags: House 2006 (all tags)

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except

Democrats didn't wedge Republicans on this issue. Republicans wedged Republicans. This was Mike Castle's bill.

Another issue we should be working along these lines on - immigration. Also has the potential to fracture the GOP big time.

by tparty 2005-05-25 07:16AM | 0 recs

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Immigration can be a wedge towards us, too

I can see it pitting blue collar union members vs. Latinos, for example.

by Geotpf 2005-05-25 08:58AM | 0 recs

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Kaptur

Kaptur is pro-life.

by Paleo 2005-05-25 09:23AM | 0 recs

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Re: Kaptur

Is anyone anti-life? Dump the pro-life spin. It's anti-abortion, not pro-anything except pro-government control of reproduction.

by antiHyde 2005-05-26 06:31AM | 0 recs

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5.6

Republican Caucus = 94.5%
Non-Blue Dog Democrats = 88.9%

94.5 - 88.9 = 5.6

by DaveOinSF 2005-05-25 09:51AM | 0 recs

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Excellent

""Non-aligned" is a new group. It is composed of the eighty-eight Democratic members of the House that are not members of one of the three ideological caucuses"

... I meant to ask you to do that. One of my local guys is fairly conservative but not a member of the DLC or Blue Dogs. Interesting to see where he falls on the range of Democratic loyalty. From what I know tracking him myself he is fairly loyal with a couple of occasional cross overs.

by Andrew C White 2005-05-25 10:00AM | 0 recs

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Marcy Kaptur

I think Marcy Kaptur is a devout Catholic. I believe she was selected to be part of the U.S. delegation for Pope John Paul II's funeral. Given the Catholic Church's opposition to stem cell research, I suspect that it is the reason for her vote against expanding stem cell research.

by scd2 2005-05-25 10:35AM | 0 recs

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Do NOT include this vote in loyalty scorecard

The articles detailing this vote all say that not only did Rep. Castle (R-Del) secure a promise for a vote on this bill, but he ALSO secured a promise that the leadership would NOT whip against this bill. In other words, the GOP leadership did not try to persuade/force GOPers to vote against it - they explicitly freed members to vote their consciences on the issue. Consequently, it is hard to see how this would measure caucus loyalty, since the leadership explicitly refused to ask for loyalty.

by demhusky 2005-05-26 07:33AM | 0 recs