Wednesday, February 12, 2014

How Many Rs Voted for Sandy Relief, VAWA, the Clean CR, and the Debt Ceiling Hike?

Yesterday, the House just passed a clean debt ceiling hike 221 to 201.

According to the House Clerk, the name of the bill was "To designate the air route traffic control center located in Nashua, New Hampshire, as the 'Patricia Clark Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center.'" Well, then.

Two Democrats opposed it: John Barrow (GA-12) and Jim Matheson (UT-04). Matheson's retiring, so he must be a conservative true believer.

28 Republicans voted for it:

John Boehner (OH-08)
Ken Calvert (CA-42)
Dave Camp (MI-04)
Eric Cantor (VA-07)
Howard Coble (NC-06)
Chris Collins (NY-27)
Charlie Dent (PA-15)
Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08)
Michael Grimm (NY-11)
Richard Hanna (NY-22)
Doc Hastings (WA-04)
Darrel Issa (CA-49)
Peter King (NY-02)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02)
Kevin McCarthy (CA-23)
Buck McKeon (CA-25)
Pat Meehan (PA-07)
Gary Miller (CA-31)
Devin Nunes (CA-22)
David Reichert (WA-08)
Hal Rogers (KY-05)
Peter Roskam (IL-06)
Ed Royce (CA-39)
Jon Runyan (NJ-03)
John Shimkus (IL-15)
Chris Smith (NJ-04)
David Valadao (CA-21)
Frank Wolf (VA-10)

20 of them are from the Mid-Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA) or the West coast (WA, CA). All but two of them represent districts in states that Obama won in 2012.

Back in October, after the vote to end the government shutdown, I decided to cross-check that vote with the votes on Sandy relief and VAWA reauthorization. If you set a really low bar for what it means to be a "moderate" Republican, voting for those three should be a requirement. Doing that analysis gave me a list of 29 names.

I thought of that list when I heard that there were 28 Republicans voting for the debt ceiling hike. How much overlap would there be between that list and this one?

12 names.

Only 12 Republicans have voted for Sandy relief, VAWA reauthorization, the clean CR in October, and the clean debt ceiling hike today.

Charlie Dent (PA-15)
Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08)
Michael Grimm (NY-11)
Richard Hanna (NY-22)
Peter King (NY-02)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02)
Kevin McCarthy (CA-23)
Buck McKeon (CA-25)
Pat Meehan (PA-07)
David Reichert (WA-08)
Jon Runyan (NJ-03)
John Shimkus (IL-15)

And I feel that I'm being generous by including McCarthy, given that he's the Majority Whip.
Let's ignore him for the moment then, and look at the Cook Partisan ratings for each of their districts.

Charlie Dent (PA-15)  R+2
Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08) R+1
Michael Grimm (NY-11) R+2
Richard Hanna (NY-22) R+3
Peter King (NY-02) R+1
Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02) D+1
Buck McKeon (CA-25) R+3
Pat Meehan (PA-07) R+2
David Reichert (WA-08) R+1
Jon Runyan (NJ-03) R+1
John Shimkus (IL-15) R+14

Excluding Shimkus, there's a clear pattern. These guys need to adhere to the bare minimum of "moderation" because they're all in (theoretically) competitive seats.

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