So, did Boswell get the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter endorsement in the 2008
general election?
What about the primary? As I recall, the Club generally does not endorse in
primaries, but this was one where we should have--Boswell conducted one of
the dirtiest, most dishonest primary campaigns in recent memory, loaded
with tactics Karl Rove would admire, and a SC endorsement of Ed Fallon, his
primary challenger, might have helped.
Tom
In a message dated 5/3/2009 11:53:14 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
This is an interesting analysis of the voting records of our Congressional
delegation, especially Boswell
Wally Taylor
Replacing Boswell By The Numbers
Congressional vote rating site Progressive Punch has added a new
measurement to its cluster of counts that illustrates even more clearly why Leonard
Boswell neds to be replaced though retirement or primary.
The new measure is called "_Progressive Score vs. District Tilt_
(http://progressivepunch.org/members.jsp?chamber=House&sort=benchmark-percent&order=dow
n&party=All) ," and it looks at the partisan leanings of a district
compared to the member's voting record. It's a five star system, with more stars
being better.
Progressive Punch _argues_
(http://progressivepunch.org/members.jsp?chamber=House&sort=benchmark-percent&order=down&party=All#progvsbench) that a
member from a strong Democratic district should be voting progressive at least
83.33 percent of the time. The scale drops to 70% for a member from a deep
red district. This give a break to someone like Timothy Bishop of New
York, who has only an 85.5% progressive record but comes from a swing seat. He
gets all five stars, whereas Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with a similar
record but a solid Dem district, gets only three.
The scale tends to lose meaning near the top, with the usual cluster of
urban districts. Only 29 members get all five stars; even Speaker Pelosi gets
only four.
Things get more interesting as you move down the scale. Iowa's top member
is Dave Loebsack at number 128, near the middle of the House Democratic
caucus. He has a lifetime score 0f 80.25 on "critical progressive votes" from
a strong Democratic district. Punch thinks he should be at 83.33, so
Loebsack's score is -3.05 for a two start "tolerable."
Bruce Braley is number 154. He's at -7.28 for a one star "intolerable." A
harsh description, but even Dennis Kucinich rates only an "acceptable"
three stars. The number is what's significant.
And by the numbers, Leonard Boswell is near the bottom of the Democratic
list, number 194 of 221 ranked Democrats (freshmen aren't listed). With a
Leaning Democratic district, Boswell should be at 80 percent progressive.
Instead, his lifetime record on crucial votes is only 64.06, for a score of
-15.96.
But if you put Leonard into Steve King's district, where he lived before
he carpetbagged into Des Moines, without changing his voting behavior (which
he should), the bar for Boswell drops from the 80 percent mark to 70
percent. That moves his score up from a -16 to a -6 and his rank up to about
150th, better than Braley. Still a harsh one star, but even Progressive Punch
acknowledges that “'intolerable' members from Strong Republican districts
probably aren’t worth fighting with."
But intolerable members from good Democratic districts are worth the
fight. Braley may just need a nudge from time to time, but Boswell is a lost
cause. This measuring system, more than anything else I've found, explains
plainly why Leonard Boswell needs replacement. Iowa 3 is electing a member who
votes like someone from a deep red seat like Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of
South Dakota or Chet Edwards of Texas. They should be able to sustain
someone like Robert Wexler or Kendrick Meek of Florida or... lookee here, Dave
Loebsack.
One interesting quirk of the scoring: Steve King is actually not Iowa's
worst member under this system, because his district is so awful. He ranks at
number 300, but Tom Latham, from a swing district, is number 368, or
number 8 from the bottom, with a whopping -75 points.
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