Roll Call has identified the 9 most vulnerable Democrats in the House of Representatives this year. They are:
(Progressive and Regressive grades are based on the best possible score of 100)
Betsy Markey – Blue Dog – Progressive grade 28, Regressive grade 16
Chet Edwards – Progressive grade 25, Regressive grade 24
Debbie Halvorson – Progressive grade 28, Regressive grade 20
Steve Dreihaus – Progressive grade 31, Regressive grade 16
Mary Jo Kilroy – Progressive grade 41, Regressive grade 12
Suzanne Kozmas – Progressive grade 28, Regressive grade 12
Frank Kratovil – Blue Dog – Progressive grade 25, Regressive grade 20
Ann Kirkpatrick – Progressive grade 28, Regressive grade 20
Tom Perriello – Progressive grade 31, Regressive grade 16
Notice a pattern? Almost all of these Democrats have quite low progressive legislative ratings, meaning that they’ve not supported very many pieces of progressive legislation in the current session of Congress. For most of these vulnerable Democrats, the regressive rating is almost as high as the progressive rating.
The only outlier in this group is Mary Jo Kilroy, who edges slightly higher with a progressive score than the others. Still, her record in the 111th Congress is quite un-progressive. A 41 out of 100 score is a very weak showing, and she’s managed to vote for some right wing pieces of legislation as well, such as approval of wasteful military spending that even the Pentagon says it doesn’t want, and the renewal of the most abused portions of the Patriot Act’s powers of surveillance against the American people.
There’s not one strong progressive among the most vulnerable House Democrats this year. To the extent that American voters are upset with Democrats in the House of Representatives, it’s not because the Democrats were too progressive. It’s because they weren’t progressive enough. Progressives Democrats are holding on to their seats. It’s Blue Dogs and other rightling Democrats that are in trouble.