PARTISAN SPLITS REFLECTED
IN AFL-CIO HOUSE VOTE COUNTS

The sharp partisan divisions that ran through the Democratic-run House in 2007 also showed up in vote tallies compiled by the AFL-CIO.

The labor federation listed 33 House votes in the first session of the 110th Congress on which it labeled lawmakers’ positions as “right” or “wrong.” By lopsided margins, the majority Democrats came out “right” and the minority Republicans “wrong.”

Specifically, 173 Democrats voted in agreement with the federation’s position on every vote they took part in that the AFL-CIO tallied. Some lawmakers missed 1 or 2 votes; 1 missed 5. The late Rep. Julia Carson (D-Ind.), battling cancer, missed 7.

The votes covered a range of issues, such as raising the minimum wage, pass-ing the Employee Free Choice Act, setting new budget priorities, getting U.S. troops out of Iraq, increasing money for children’s health care, and fair pay for women workers.

Another 29 Democrats cast only 1 vote in disagreement with the federation. In almost all cases, the reason was the war in Iraq. Their disagreeing vote, on May 17, was on the defense authorization bill, which sets military spending priorities, but does not actually allot the money. The defense bill passed 397-27 with 25 Democrats and 2 Republicans opposing it. The foes wanted conditions for troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Democratic foes of the DOD bill included House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.)--his only vote disagreeing with the AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO supported the bill because it deleted most of anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush’s scheme to wreck union rights for DOD’s 700,000 civilian workers. But the defense measure also lacked limits on Bush’s war in Iraq, and that prompted the out-of-Iraq Caucus to oppose the DOD measure. Most of the disagreement with the AFL-CIO on that vote came from members of that caucus.

The defense bill vote also accounted most of the times 51 Republicans--including Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the Education and Labor Committee’s top Republican, Howard McKeon (R-Calif.)--agreed with the federation on 1 of the 33 votes. They disagreed on the rest, with scattered absences. There were no GOP zeroes.

The AFL-CIO cautions that voting records are just one item workers should use in considering whether, and how strongly, to back a lawmaker in the coming elections. And some lawmakers without “perfect” records may actually be as pro-worker as their districts allow.

Thus, for example, in Oklahoma, an extremely conservative anti-labor state, Rep. Dan Boren, the state’s Democrat, voted in agreement with the AFL-CIO on 18 roll calls--fewer than any other House Democrat nationwide--and disagreed on 12, including passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Boren missed the other 3 votes.

But Boren was far ahead of the Sooner State’s four other representatives, all Republicans. Each agreed with the AFL-CIO twice and disagreed 30 or 31 times.

Remaining Republican moderates split sharply with their party’s anti-worker stands, with their opposition increasing as the year went on. But they still had a way to go to catch the Democrats.

Connecticut’s 5-person delegation, for example, had four Democrats with perfect scores--John Larson of Hartford missed one vote but the other three each went 33-for-33 in agreement with the AFL-CIO. The lone Republican, Chris Shays of Stamford, trailed. But Shays had one of the best pro-worker GOP marks in the House, voting in agreement with the AFL-CIO by a 21-10 margin with 2 missed votes.

Other top Republicans were Reps. Jo Anne Emerson (Mo.) 22-11, Shelly Moore Capito (W. Va.) 21-12, Tim Murphy (Pa.) 21-12, Philip English (Pa.) 20-13, Candice Miller (Mich.) 21-12, Steve LaTourette (Ohio) 24-9, William Walsh and John McHugh of upstate New York, each at 23-9-1, and four New Jersey Republicans: Frank LoBiondo at 25-8, Jim Saxton at 20-13, Michael Ferguson at 23-9-1 and Frank Pallone at 24-9.

Some of the most-solid labor support came from big-city delegations. The 6-person Chicago Democratic delegation had one “wrong” vote, by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. on the DOD bill, and three absences. Their other 194 votes, combined, all were scored “right.” New York City and Long Island Democrats racked up 14 perfect scores, while Los Angeles-area and Orange County Democrats had 11 perfect scores. Both delegations had scattered absences, but no disagreements with the AFL-CIO’s picks.

More typical was Minnesota: 5 pro-worker Democrats who, combined, had only one “wrong” vote--by Out-Of-Iraq caucus member Keith Ellison on the DOD bill--and four absences. Republicans John Kline and Judy Bachmann were each 1-32 and GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad, who is rethinking his announced retirement, was 12-21.

The St. Louis area followed the same pattern: Reps. Bill Clay and Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) and Phil Hare and Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) were each 33-for-33 with the AFL-CIO. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) was 7-26 and Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) was 2-31.

The vote charts are on www.aflcio.org under the legislative section.