Ten Most Dominant Conservatives in the House of Representatives, 2009
Yesterday we released our new report, “Call and Response,” which covers the extent of reciprocation in the House of Representatives in 2009. To measure reciprocation, we tabulated patterns of sponsorship and cosponsorship for the 4,412 substantive “H.R.” bills introduced to the House that year. A bill’s sponsor is the legislator whose office authors a bill and who introduces it for consideration; any other member of the House may indicate their formal support for a bill by cosponsoring it. For each of the 435 Representatives in the House, we counted up the number of times he or she cosponsored someone else’s bills and also the number of cosponsorships registered for the bills s/he introduced. We subtract the first number from the second to assess a member’s tendency toward dominating others in legislating or following in others’ legislative tracks.
Among the most conservative members of the House (those who earned at least a net congressional score of -50 or lower in 2009), the following are the ten most dominant in their legislative relations with other members of the House. These are the right-wing legislators who have gathered far more cosponsors for the bills they’ve written than the number of cosponsorships they’ve offered to the bills written by others. Whether you like the direction they’re pushing policy or not, they’re the conservatives most likely to get others to push alongside them. They are the Top Ten Dominant Conservatives in the House of Representatives, 2009:
1. Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio District 8 )
2. Rep. Tom Price (Georgia District 6)
3. Rep. Steve King (Iowa District 5)
4. Rep. John Carter (Texas District 31)
5. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee District 7)
6. Rep. Sam Johnson (Texas District 3)
7. Rep. Mike Pence (Indiana District 6)
8. Rep. Phil Gingrey (Georgia District 11)
9. Rep. Paul Broun (Georgia District 10)
10. Rep. Duncan Hunter (California District 52)
Republican will kick some democRAT asses in 2012, it’s garanteed. Independant voters have all switched at 99% to the Republican side.
I cannot understand why Congress men and women cannot and for the most part do not recognize the intelligence and capabilities of their fellow members of Congress! It makes no sense to me that any person in Congress would vote 100% down party lines. With 365 members present, it seems to me that someone would find something good for the country in the other parties. I think that this is one of the great stumbling blocks for meaningful legislation that party politics play host over any other meaningful reason for votes! No wonder this body of legislature has such a poor rating!