Reichert Can't Hide From His Voting Record

Dave Reichert supporters have a problem. Actually they have a number of problems. And they all stem from Reichert's problematic voting record, which is just one problem after another.

There are those that aren't happy with Reichert because they feel he hasn't been conservative enough for them. They will point to a couple of votes in outrage.

Back in January one could read the following comments at conservative blog Sound Politics:

I like Rossi, but I do not support anyone that Reichert has a backroom roll in putting into office. Reichert is a slime job and cares about as much about families in King County as, say, Maureen Dowd. Don't be fooled by the Marlboro Man appearance of that weasel.

Posted by: BananaLand on January 9, 2006 06:55 PM

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Though I did volunteer work on Reichert's campaign - I have since stopped my support for him...(He is the epitomy of RINO..)

Posted by: Deborah on January 9, 2006 07:10 PM

Just over a month ago these comments hadn't improved:

I hope she [Darcy Burner] wins. Reichert sold his soul and civil rights of every man in his district in exchange for federal pork money for the Sheriff's association (whatever it's called) from VAWA. Republicans ought to look more closely at the people and radical ideologies they go to bed with.

Posted by: BananaLand on March 23, 2006 03:48 PM

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When Reichert wrote his book, Chasing the Devil, I didn't know that he actually caught him and made a deal! Lordy, lordy. Best rethink my vote for Congress this November. Although I'm a bit confused. Is Reichert a radical or Rino?

Posted by: Reporterward on March 23, 2006 04:02 PM

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Dave's got the upperhand over her now but it's important that it stays that way. With the deadline approaching for campaigns to report their funds, it's important for people who plan to donate and/or volunteer with Reichert to do so as early and often as possible. With enough of an effort made right now, we can scare off the National Democrats and their minions from contributing to this race by this spring. That way we can focus on our other two winnable federal elections, McGavick's senate campaign and Doug Roulstone's house race up in the Second District.

Posted by: Reporterward on March 23, 2006 06:32 PM

Then there are those that believe that Reichert's so-called moderate streak is something to crow about, such as recently when Stefan Sharkansky at SP wrote about his analysis of the roll call data from the 2005 and 2006 109th Congressional record.

I chimed in on the comment thread at SP, and I'll repeat much of what I said there in this post, and that is that Shark's analysis is based on a flawed assumption: that all votes are the same. They aren't!

Sharkansky would have us believe that Reichert is the most moderate member of congress from the state of Washington based on his voting record. Well that depends on what one's definition of moderate is, and what voting record you look at. Sharkansky would have you believe that a procedural vote is no different from a vote on passage of a bill. Unfortunately for Shark they are very different.

Many of the votes where Reichert, in regular SP commenter and HorsesAss.org troll Richard Pope's words, "supported Nancy Pelosi and the left-wing Democrat leadership", were procedural. In fact there were 211 "motions to suspend the rules" votes alone, amounting to over 27% of the total votes. If voting on the same side as the Democratic leadership on a procedural vote makes you a Democrat, or a moderate, then the same can be said for pretty much every Republican - which is absurd.

What matters is what Reichert did on the key votes, legislation where the majority position among Democrats in the House was different from the majority position among Republicans in the House.

When you look at these key votes, Reichert voted with Republicans on all of these (and his vote was the deciding vote for 4 of them):

- House Roll Call 31, the REAL ID Act
- House Roll Call 38, Class Action Fairness Act.
- House Roll Call 48, Job Training Improvement Act.
- House Roll Call 102, Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act.
- House Roll Call 108, Bankruptcy Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.
- House Roll Call 144, Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act.
- House Roll Call 204, Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.
- House Roll Call 296, Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.
- House Roll Calls 369, 370, 371, and 372, the Occupation Safety and Health bills.
- House Roll Call 443, CAFTA. (Cast deciding vote)
- House Roll Call 445, Energy Policy Act of 2005.
- House Roll Call 475, To Establish the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina.
- House Roll Call 493, School Readiness Act.
- House Roll Call 519, Gasoline for America's Security Act. (Cast deciding vote)
- House Roll Call 533, Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act.
- House Roll Call 534, Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
- House Roll Call 553, Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act.
- House Roll Call 559, Online Freedom of Speech Act. Note: this is the only time when I would have dissented form the Democrat majority position.
- House Roll Call 601, Deficit Reduction Act. (Cast deciding vote)
- House Roll Call 621, Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act.
- House Roll Call 627, USA Patriot Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act.
- House Roll Call 628, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006. (Cast deciding vote)
- House Roll Call 661, Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act.
- House Roll Call 670, the budget.

and he only voted with Democrats on these three votes:

- House Roll Call 282, the Henry Hyde United Nations Reform Act.
- House Roll Call 506, Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act.
- House Roll Call 635, Pension Protection Act.

Hard core right wingers reacted with glee that Reichert in fact voted 89% of the time with the majority position among Republicans on these key votes, however it certainly puts to rest any suggestion that Reichert is moderate, and the "independent" voter probably looks at this type of voting record with considerable concern. The Republicans have swung so far to the right that if anything Reichert comes off as being marginally less right, but still considerably right of center, and definitely not moderate or centrist. Reichert's votes on the issues listed above mirrors that of bad boy Tom DeLay, and try as he might, Reichert can't shake being damned by association with the tainted representative from Texas. The fact Dave Reichert has taken $20000 from Tom DeLay's ARMPAC doesn't help matters for him either.

Simply put Dave Reichert cannot escape his voting record, and Democratic challenger Darcy Burner will be pounding him every day about it. You can read more about how the two candidates differ here.

While Sharkansky seems to have wowed his readers with his Perl prowess and number crunching, it is all a smoke and mirrors exercise that simply obscures the actual meaning of each individual vote.

A lot has changed in the landscape of this race since January, and even since last month. Darcy Burner has shown fundraising strength enough to be one of the top races the DCCC is backing with further funding and assistance. She's genuine, down to earth, and passionate about the issues that matter to regular people. Her fundraising will help her get her message out to all parts of the 8th District, especially the southern and eastern rural areas. She is hardly the "East Coast machine Democrat" right wingers would wish to portray her as. She entered this race not because a party hand picked her, but because of her own belief she could provide better representation in D.C. for the residents of the 8th, and the grassroots have embraced her candidacy and the national political organizations have had to take notice.

In the past the Republicans have benefited from a weak or diluted Democratic challenger field, and for the longest time Jennifer Dunn's personal political strength. However, this year the tide is turning. The GOP ethics problems and ineffectiveness in D.C., Bush's terrible approval ratings, coupled with Burner's early campaign start, solid grassroots support and impressive fundraising numbers, in a district that is leaning Democratic, mean that freshman congressman Reichert is going to have the biggest battle for this seat the GOP has experienced in many many years, and it is going to take more than just a good head of hair for him to win re-election.

There is still a long time to go in this race, but it will be decided on the issues, and Reichert is in no man's land on them. His own base of supporters don't like the fact he isn't voting 100% Republican, independents will not be happy that he's voted 90% Republican, and Democrats will not be fooled by any of his voting record, and eager to support a candidate that will truly represent their positions, all the time not just 10% of the time.