Oh, and...

NRCC Overstates Dems’ Voting Record with Pelosi

And Democrats spin the voting data, too.

October 15, 2010


Summary

A number of new TV ads by the National Republican Congressional Committee purport to tell us how often a Democratic incumbent voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But the ads overstate the incumbents’ support for Pelosi’s agenda.

The NRCC uses the Washington Post vote database that gauges "party loyalty." The NRCC ads equate "party loyalty" to "voting with Pelosi." But the two are not the same (and we will explain exactly why in our analysis below). Using the "head-to-head voting comparison" tool on OpenCongress.org, we compared the votes of six Democrats featured in NRCC attack ads with Pelosi’s votes and found the Republican claims were inflated in every case.

In an NRCC ad called "How Desperate Is Lincoln Davis," for example, the NRCC says: "Davis voted with Nancy Pelosi 94 percent of the time." That’s wrong. He voted 79 percent of the time with Pelosi, according to OpenCongress.org.

Democrats, too, manipulate voting data. Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia — who has been a victim of the NRCC’s misleading ad campaign — says in a new TV ad, "Jim Marshall doesn’t support Nancy Pelosi. He voted the same as Republican leaders 65 percent of the time." But that figure comes from an analysis conducted by the campaign, and it covers only this year’s votes. Since January 2007, when Pelosi became speaker, OpenCongress.org shows Marshall voted 56 percent of the time with Republican Leader John Boehner. That’s not that impressive when you consider Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, who is responsible for getting Democrats to vote the party line, voted with Boehner 44 percent of the time.

Analysis

It has become common this election year for Republicans to tie Democratic candidates to Pelosi, and lately we’re seeing more than a few Democrats seeking to distance themselves from her. In doing so, though, both sides are misusing voting data.

How Desperate Is the NRCC?

In an ad called "How Desperate Is Lincoln Davis," the NRCC says: "Davis voted with Pelosi 94 percent of the time." That’s wrong.

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full transcript ⬏

The NRCC ad, which first aired Oct. 13, cites the Washington Post Votes Database to support its claim. But the Post doesn’t compare how Davis voted with Pelosi. The number the NRCC cites is the percentage Davis voted with a majority of his party — which the Post calls "party loyalty."

The paper explains on its website that its database contains "every vote in the United States Congress." It determines party loyalty based on "the percentage of votes on which a lawmaker agrees with the position taken by a majority of his or her party members." The party loyalty numbers are for the current Congress, which began January 2009, and cover more than 1,500 votes — including a bill that would name a post office in Wisconsin after Captain Rhett W. Schiller. That counts toward the "party loyalty" rating, as do any number of similar feel-good votes to honor the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard or to declare September National Child Awareness Month. (All those votes count toward the Republican Party loyalty measurement, too, since a majority of Republicans also supported them.)


There's more... LOTS more... to that article, including videos and stuff.  The upshot is, so the hell WHAT if someone voted "with Pelosi"?  How many Republicans voted with Boehner or McConnell damn near EVERY time?


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SGT. JIRI TREBISSKY H&D SAS

"When the winds of change blow, some people
build walls and others build windmills."
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