It gets worse though. The DFL has 87 members in the house the GOP has 47, the DFL missed a total of 1,194 votes, the GOP missed 1,370. The DFL has 85% more members in the house and yet the GOP still missed 15% more votes. Even excluding Mr. Emmer and his gargantuan 147 missed votes the GOP still missed more votes than the DFL. To further an analogy, if Tom Emmer is the Babe Ruth of missed votes, the house GOP are the New York Yankees.
I suppose when you're as deep in the minority as the Minnesota GOP is in the house you can get kind of discouraged about voting, but really, is there any excuse for this kind of systematic failure to show up and do your job?
For your enjoyment here are the top 25 legislators in missed votes:
And here are the legislators who didn't miss a single vote or only missed one:
of course when you are part of a lop-sided minority, your vote is almost always only symbolic. give the missed vote issue a rest
ReplyDeleteand yes i'm partisan, but what about BHO's voting "present" do you suppose that is a legitimate issue?
ReplyDeleteI agree, when you're that deep in the minority your vote often doesn't matter, I brought up that very point in the post. Does that excuse missing so many votes though?
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as Obama's voting record, well, that was certainly brought up during the campaign, but now that he's President does it really matter how he voted as a Senator? In 2012 he'll be judged by his accomplishments as President not what he did when he was a Senator.
Rep Magnus's father passed away during session.
ReplyDeleteThat's good to point out.
ReplyDeleteI didn't actually do the next step and look into why these legislators missed these votes and Rep. Magnus probably isn't the only one who had a good reason.
Like with high school attendance awards though, excused absences are still absences.