I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
During a year in which 60 percent of New Mexico’s delegation to D.C. won’t be back for the swearing in of new members next week, looking back at how much the delegation supported George W. Bush’s stances on issues this year is more or less a novelty. And only one member — Jeff Bingaman — will still be in the same spot as he is now.
Sen. Pete Domenici is retiring, while Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce both lost Senate bids this year — Wilson in the primary to Pearce and Peace in the general to Democratic Sen.-elect Tom Udall.
But what about those numbers? Congressional Quarterly looked at the votes of those in Congress based on issues where President Bush took a stance.
| NM Support/Opposition to Bush | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Support | Oppose | Participation | |
| Domenici | 83 | 17 | 98 |
| Bingaman | 28 | 72 | 100 |
| Wilson | 73 | 27 | 93 |
| Pearce | 70 | 30 | 96 |
| Udall | 14 | 86 | 99 |
| Numbers from Congressional Quarterly | |||
The “support” shows the percent each member of New Mexico’s delegation voted in agreement with what Bush supported. The “oppose” shows the percent each member voted against the wishes of Bush. The “participation” column shows the percent of time each member participated in a vote that Bush took a stance on.
Let’s put this in a little more context. How did our delegation compare to the rest of their colleagues? CQ crunches the numbers:
Moderate Republicans fled from the president as the election neared, and the average House Republican supported Bush just 64 percent of the time. That’s down 8 percentage points from a year ago and the lowest for a president’s party since 1990, midway through Bush’s father’s term in the White House. His average support score of 70 percent among GOP senators was also the lowest for a president’s party since 1990. As in 2007, Democrats voted with Bush far less often than they had when the Republicans were in charge and could set the agenda. House Democrats voted with Bush just 16 percent of the time on average — above their 2007 support score of 7 percent but still the second lowest for any president. Democratic senators joined Bush on 34 percent of roll call votes, down from their average support score of 37 percent a year ago.
The Democrats — Bingaman in the Senate and Udall in the House — voted less with Bush than their Democratic colleagues as a whole. The Republicans — Domenici in the Senate and Wilson and Pearce in the House — voted with Bush’s wishes much more than the average Republican.
So what happened with these vote numbers in an election year? This year, the Democrats pulled off an historic sweep of all the seats up for grabs; a Senate seat and two House seats switched hands, while Udall’s House seat stayed with the Democratic Party.
With a new Democratic president, strong Democratic control of both the House and Senate, and a True Blue New Mexico delegation, it looks like party unity will be very high among the New Mexico delegation in 2009.
