Here Are the Democrats Most Likely to Be Disloyal on Obamacare
Heavily along partisan lines, the House on Friday afternoon voted for a Republican Obamacare bill that the president has threatened to veto. We wondered: Which Democrats have been most disloyal to the president on the issue?
.Heavily along partisan lines, the House on Friday afternoon voted to pass Rep. Fred Upton's proposal allowing Americans to keep their existing health coverage if their insurers threatened to cancel it. But 39 Democrats joined the Republicans in supporting a bill that President Obama has already threatened to veto, leading us to wonder: Which Democrats have been most disloyal to the president on Obamacare?
As we noted earlier, the Upton vote was a benchmark for Democratic loyalty, the first contentious vote on an Obamacare-related issue since the shutdown ended. But it's not the only such vote since the shutdown began. During the shutdown, you may recall, the Republicans' key tactic was to force votes in favor of funding popular issues to which they thought Democrats would have to acquiesce. Given that the shutdown itself was an attempt to defund Obamacare, votes in favor of those partial funding measures were votes that undermined the Democratic strategy to preserve the bill.
We looked at eight of those votes — to fund border security, nuclear safety, Head Start, food stamps, veterans' benefits, National Guard pay, and NIH — to see how the 39 defectors on the Upton bill voted. Some had strong political motivations to do so; nine of the 39 are in districts that the Cook Political Report labels as "Toss ups," races in which it's impossible to predict whether the Democratic or Republican candidate will win 2014. But some represent rock-solid Democratic districts. So: The most disloyal Democrat would be one that voted for the Upton bill, voted with the Republicans on the defunding votes, and is from a solidly Democratic district.
And there was such a Democrat, Rep. Dave Loebsack of Iowa. In our scale, he got nine points for voting against Obamacare every time, and five extra points for being from a safe district. On the other end of the scale was New Hampshire Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, who voted for the Upton bill but not any of the partial funding measures — even though she's from a toss-up district.
Here's how the 39 are ranked:
- 1. Iowa Rep. Loebsack (right). Score: 14
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 2. Michigan Rep. Peters . Score: 13
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 8. - 3. Iowa Rep. Braley. Score: 12
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 3. Washington Rep. DelBene. Score: 12
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 3. Illinois Rep. Foster. Score: 12
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 6. Georgia Rep. Barrow. Score: 11
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 6. Illinois Rep. Bustos. Score: 11
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 6. New York Rep. Maloney. Score: 11
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 6. Utah Rep. Matheson. Score: 11
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 6. North Carolina Rep. McIntyre. Score: 11
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 6. Arizona Rep. Sinema. Score: 11
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 12. Arizona Rep. Barber. Score: 10
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 12. California Rep. Bera. Score: 10
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 12. Texas Rep. Gallego. Score: 10
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 8. - 12. Florida Rep. Garcia. Score: 10
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 12. Florida Rep. Murphy. Score: 10
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 12. California Rep. Peters . Score: 10
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 12. California Rep. Ruiz. Score: 10
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 12. Illinois Rep. Schneider. Score: 10
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 9. - 20. California Rep. Garamendi. Score: 9
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 6. - 20. Oregon Rep. Schrader. Score: 9
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 4. - 22. Georgia Rep. Bishop. Score: 8
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 3. - 23. Oregon Rep. DeFazio. Score: 7
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 2. - 23. Minnesota Rep. Peterson. Score: 7
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 4. - 25. Illinois Rep. Duckworth. Score: 6
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 25. Wisconsin Rep. Kind. Score: 6
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 25. New York Rep. Maffei. Score: 6
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 3. - 25. Texas Rep. Vela. Score: 6
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 25. Minnesota Rep. Walz. Score: 6
District: Solid Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 30. California Rep. Costa. Score: 5
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 2. - 30. New York Rep. Owens. Score: 5
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 3. - 30. West Virginia Rep. Rahall. Score: 5
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 4. - 33. Connecticut Rep. Esty. Score: 4
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 33. New Hampshire Rep. Kuster. Score: 4
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 33. California Rep. McNerney. Score: 4
District: Likely Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1.
- 33. Minnesota Rep. Nolan. Score: 4
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 2. - 37. California Rep. Brownley. Score: 3
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 37. Illinois Rep. Enyart. Score: 3
District: Lean Dem. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1. - 39. New Hampshire Rep. Shea-Porter (right). Score: 2
District: Toss up. Anti-Obamacare votes: 1.
And here, all of the data. If Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is looking for a checklist next time she needs to gin up votes on an Obamacare measure: start at the top.