Congressional ratings: South Sound Reps. Baird, Smith don’t buck party so often

• Published December 23, 2008

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That’s what the numbers show in Congressional Quarterly’s vote ratings for the 110th Congress in 2008.

Click here to see the full rankings for Congress.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, the Tacoma Democrat whose 9th district includes Lacey, voted with President Bush more often than any other Washington Democrat — but it was just 20 percent of the time. He sided with his party’s position 97 percent of the time.

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, the Vancouver Democrat whose 3rd district represents Tumwater and Olympia, voted with the president just 16 percent of the time and with his party 94 percent of the time.

Only one other Democrat, 1st District Rep. Jay Inslee of Shoreline, voted with Bush less often than Baird, 15 percent of the time.

Randy Stapilus of the Ridenbaugh Press blog has this post looking at Northwest lawmakers from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

As high as Baird and Smith’s party-vote numbers might seem they were the lowest for Washington state’s Democrats in the House or Senate.

By contrast, U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert was the most independent of Washington’s members of Congress. At least that was true when Reichert’s votes were measured against his party’s position — and when compared to Republican Reps. Doc Hastings of Pasco and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers of Spokane.

Reichert, the 8th district Republican from east King County, voted with President Bush’s position just 53 percent of the time in key votes where the president’s position was known. Reichert, who faced a strong election challenge that tried to tie him to Bush and GOP policies, also voted with his party 75 percent of the time.

Hastings went with the GOP 98 percent of the time and McMorris-Rodgers did so 95 percent of the time.

Both South Sound lawmakers voted most of the time — 98 percent participation for Baird, 94 percent for Smith.

Both of the state’s U.S. senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, voted 28 percent of the time with the president’s position. But Murray who is in the caucus leadership went 99 percent of the time with the party’s position, while Cantwell went there 97 percent of the time.

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, had the lowest vote participation total in the delegation, but it wasn’t that low — 93 percent.