Glenn Nye Gets What He Asked For?
A couple of Virginia’s liberal blogs are in a tizzy in reaction to “Democrats Plan Political Triage to Retain House” in yesterday’s New York Times.
“In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.”
As Nye’s name has appeared on many lists of the “Top 10 Most Vulnerable”, he’s surely on this DCCC list as well. But as Roll Call points out, Nye has distanced himself from the House Democratic leadership, “going against the party line almost a third of the time”, and opposing health care legislation. In consideration of the 2nd’s heavily conservative leaning, making the Dems’ cut list may be what he wanted all along.
So, it’s looks like it’s finally official. Nancy Pelosi has signed the divorce papers that Glenn Nye served on her awhile ago. No love loss there! So be it, if that’s what it’ll take for him to beat his nutcase opponent.
Join us on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter.
September 6th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Nye gets to move further right to court republicans who hate him, while hoping liberals figure “glenn nye is better than scott rigell. nye sold out his base for tea partiers who hate him. not fair to us, glenn.
September 6th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
And from the piece Eileen linked to on Roll Call comes this quote:
Democrats Who Won in 2008 Remain on Front Line of Party’s Battle to Hold the House Majority.
I think that pretty much sums it up and I need not say more.
September 6th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
I’m confused. The Roll Call article apparently claims that Nye voted against the party line almost a third of the time. But David Campbell has written oh, probably a thousand times here, that Nye has voted with the Democrats 82.6% of the time.
So while David is very precise, I’m apt to trust Roll Call more than an overly-irate blogger. So which is true? Or, in liberal land, does 17.4% qualify as “almost a third”? Kind of like “the stimulus worked” and “if you like your health plan you can keep it” and “recovery summer”?
September 7th, 2010 at 5:45 am
My source of information, which I have linked to several times (but, to be “very precise,” not nearly “a thousand times”) previously is the Washington Post. Perhaps that will clear up your “confusion.”
Nye has voted with the Democratic Party 82.6% of the time. Rigell is likely to vote with the Republican Party about 95% of the time. That’s the choice for voters in the 2nd district. Democrats better get motivated.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:07 am
According to a July PilotOnline article that appeared back in July of 2009, Nye bucked the Democratic Party line on 1 out of 4 votes during his first 6 months in office, but supported President Obama’s agenda 81 percent of the time. While more then a year has passed since then, I wonder if the explanation for the discrepancy isn’t something similar.
The article I referenced can be found here:
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/rep-glenn-nye-not-walking-party-line
Doing some further exploration, I discovered that OpenCongress claims Nye votes the party line 84% of the time. Their rating for Glenn can be found here:
http://www.opencongress.org/people/show/412301_Glenn_Nye
It is interesting to note that, according to OpenCongress’s rankings, every other Virginia representative in the House voted with their respective party at least 91% of the time. Pereillo was at 91% with Republican Congressman Wolf next at 92% with all others at 94% or greater. The ratings for all Virginia House Reps can be found here:
http://www.opencongress.org/people/representatives#V
I guess Glenn could honestly claim that, according to OpenCongress, he is the most moderate representative from Virginia in the House from either Party.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:23 am
David Campbell,
I submitted a comment with some links for Open Minded that awaits moderation (I guess due to the three links).
In it I show where the OpenCongress website claims Nye votes the party line 84% of the time. The next in line is (D) Pereillo at 91%, and (R) Wolf at 92%, with the rest being rated at 94% or greater.
I think that Nye could claim to be the most moderate representative from Virginia serving in the House. Does anyone expect Rigell to be as much of a moderate if he is elected? I’d be willing to place a small wager he wouldn’t challenge Wolf for being the Republican most likely to buck the party line.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Interesting link, DC. Elsewhere on the same site is the listing of party-line voting percentage for all members of the House. Pelosi at the top with 100% (which still surprises me, for some reason).
The compelling thing I saw is that the first Republican listed is Sam Graves, “all the way” down at 97.6%. There are 133 Democrats listed at that level or higher as party-line voters.
So even though nobody here will admit it, the Democrats appear to be the party of political purity, with well over half of their 255 members of the House more partisan than the most partisan Republican. I guess anything less than total party support really IS the sign of a disloyal Democrat.
September 7th, 2010 at 7:30 am
It is interesting that on the opposite end of the spectrum, those least likely to follow the party line, it is Ron Paul who leads Republicans in this category coming in at 77.0%.
Also interesting is that according to OpenCongress, the Republican Glenn Nye is least likely to vote with is actually Ron Paul while the Democrat he is least likely to vote with is Dennis Kuccinich. In my opinion Glenn holds up pretty well when we look at who he stands against, don’t you think?
September 7th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Open Minded: You went straight from one comment that said you don’t “trust” the statistic I cited (from a reliable source that I linked to previously) to another comment citing that same link. You’re giving me whiplash!
The difference is that Democrats are nearly united in favor of passing legislative accomplishments. Republicans are nearly united in favor of obstructionism.
September 7th, 2010 at 11:05 am
I trust the statistic. I don’t trust you.
September 9th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Those kinds of statistics are misleading because a lot of votes in Congress are procedural and, by their nature, based on party lines. Nearly everything has to be put up to a “motion to reconsider” (i.e. send back to committee/kill), which inevitably is a party-line vote.
September 9th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Johnny Longtorso,
So how misleading is this then? If Rigell is elected, he’ll vote with the Republicans and not the Democrats on procedural votes.