Instead of counting everyone who voted at the bailout vote, I took a look at the incumbents who lost their seats in direct election (meaning those who didn’t retire, but flat out lost), and checked to see which way they voted. It seems anti-Republicanism tromped any consideration for the bailout votes.
House Members Who voted YES and Got Booted
Shays (R) – Voted YES – Connecticut 4th district (51%/48%)
Mahoney (D) – Voted YES – Florida 16th district (60%/40%)
Kuhl (R) – Voted YES – New York 29th district (51%/49%)
Porter (R) – Voted YES – Nevada 3rd (48%/42%)
Knollenberg (R) – Voted YES – Michigan 9th district (52%/43%)
House Members who voted NO and Got Booted
Musgrave (R) – Voted NO – Colorado 4th district (56%/44%)
Keller (R) – Voted NO – Florida 8th district (52%/48%)
Feeney (R) – Voted NO – Florida 24th district (57%/41%)
Sali (R) – Voted NO – Idaho 1st district (51%/49%)
Boyda (D) – Voted NO – Kansas 2nd district (51%/46%)
Cazayoux (D) – Voted NO – Louisiana 6th district (48%/41%)
Walberg (R) – Voted NO – Michigan 7th district (49%/46%)
Hayes (R) – Voted NO – North Carolina 8th district (55%/45%)
Chabot (R) – Voted NO – Ogio 1st district (51%/49%)
English (R) – Voted NO – Pennsylvania 3rd district (52%/48%)
Lampson (D) – Voted NO – Texas 22nd district (53%/45%)
Drake (R) – Voted NO – Virginia 2nd district (52%/48%)
*Goode (R) – Voted NO – Virginia 6th district (50%/50%) *Results not finalized, but he is losing as of now
Senators
Dole (R) – Voted NO – North Carolina (53%/44%)
*Smith (R) – Voted YES – Oregon (49%/46%)
Sununu (R) – Voted YES – New Hampshire
As you can see, there were less no votes in the house, but more no voting house members got booted. On the yes side it’s kind of hard to even count Mahoney and Shays. Most of the losers were Republicans, with a few Democrats sprinkled in. Dole, Sununu and Smith were the only senate incumbents booted out (for sure, so far), and that’s only a 2-1 advantage for kicking out the yes people.
Conclusion: No, it didn’t matter.
Update: Added ones who ran unopposed, to see who got a free pass from possible voter judgment:
Bonner (R) – Voted YES – Alabama 1st district
Bachus (R) – Voted YES – Alabama 6th district
Davis (D) – Voted YES – Alabama 7th district
Berry (D) – Voted YES – Arkansas 1st district
Snyder (D) – Voted YES – Arkansas 2nd district
Boozman (R) – Voted YES – Arkansas 3rd district
Ross (D) – Voted YES – Arkansas 4th district
Cardoza (D) – Voted YES – California 18th district
Radanovich (R) – Voted YES – California 19th district
Berman (D) – Voted YES – California 28th district
Waxman (D) – Voted YES – California 30th district
Solis (D) – Voted YES – California 32nd district
Richardson (D) – Voted YES – California 37th district
Brown (D) – Voted YES – Florida 3rd district
Meek (D) – Voted YES – Florida 17th district
Wasserman Schultz (D) – Voted YES – Florida 20th district
Lewis (D) – Voted YES – Georgia 5th district
Hare (D) – Voted YES – Illinois 17th district
Rogers (R) – Voted YES – Kentucky 5th district
Alexander (R) – Voted YES – Louisiana 5th district
Neal (D) – Voted YES – Massachusetts 2nd district
McGovern (D) – Voted YES – Massachusetts 3rd district
Tsongas (D) – Voted YES – Massachusetts 5th district
Capuano (D) – Voted YES – Massachusetts 8th district
Meeks (D) – Voted YES – New York 6th district
Weiner (D) – Voted YES – New York 9th district
Wu (D) – Voted YES – Oregon 1st district
Doyle (D) – Voted YES – Pennsylvania 14th district
Gordon (D) – Voted YES – Tennessee 6th district
Tanner (D) – Voted YES – Tennessee 8th district
Cohen (D) – Voted YES – Tennessee 9th district
Green (D) – Voted YES – Texas 9th district
Conaway (R) – Voted YES – Texas 11th district
Reyes (D) – Voted YES – Texas 16th district
Smith (R) – Voted YES – Texas 21st district
Welch (D) – Voted YES – Vermont 1st district
Boucher (D) – Voted YES – Virginia 9th district
McCarthy (R) – Voted NO – California 22nd district
Becerra (D) – Voted NO – California 31st district
Napolitano (D) – Voted NO – California 38th district
Johnson (D) – Voted NO – Georgia 4th district
Melancon (D) – Voted NO – Louisiana 4th district
Lynch (D) – Voted NO – Massachusetts 9th district
Delahunt (D) – Voted NO – Massachusetts 10th district
Conyers (D) – Voted NO – Michigan 14th district
Clay (D) – Voted NO – Missouri 1st district
Payne (D) – Voted NO – New Jersey 10th district
Defazio (D) – Voted NO – Oregon 3rd district
Gohmert (R) – Voted NO – Texas 1st district
Poe (R) – Voted NO – Texas 2nd district
Hensarling (R) – Voted NO – Texas 5th district
Paul (R) – Voted NO – Texas 14th district
Scott (D) – Voted NO – Virginia 3rd district
Filed under: Politics
You can do all the modeling you choose too. Explanations will satisfy or not depending on prior understanding of the world.
My rep, Bart Gordon, voted Yes on the bailout. He has no competition here. He’s been rep for as long as I can remember (I’ve lived in Tennessee since 1990). The republicans don’t even bother to run against him.
I wonder how common that is, and how many incumbents voted “yes” and ran virtually unopposed? I wonder if you can truly just focus on yes/no here. Additionally, I don’t know how many people know how their rep voted – I had to search it out independently.
I noticed a number of Reps down south ran unopposed. Both Democrats and Republicans. I haven’t counted them up, but I might try to tally them in a bit.
Update: unopposed races noted
Is it any wonder?
We are at about $10 THOUSAND BILLION DOLLARS and counting.
Has anyone ever stopped to think we might be in Zimbabwe – I mean, for this most recent crisis a mere $100 Million would not cover it. Look for more x-hundred billion dollar bailouts from Obama-Pelosi.
If congress already knows our greenback is worthless, it will not be much longer before Starbuck’s figures out we are all stealing their coffee.
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