This is an interesting analysis of the voting records of our
Congressional delegation, especially Boswell
Replacing Boswell By The
NumbersCongressional 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," 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 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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