Boren voting more with his party

Boren voting more with his party
By Chris Casteel
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Rep. Dan Boren, the only Democrat in Oklahoma's seven-person congressional delegation, voted with his party a lot more after it took over the House last year than he did when Republicans ran the show.

According to a study by Congressional Quarterly, Boren, D-Muskogee, voted with the majority of Democrats 79 percent of the time in 2007. In the previous two years, he voted with his party's majority just over half the time.

In 2006, Boren topped the list of House members opposing their party, voting against the Democratic majority nearly 46 percent of the time. In 2005, his first year in Congress, he voted against his party 41 percent of the time; that also was the highest opposition score among House members of either party.

Even with his higher "party unity” score in 2007, however, Boren was still among the Democrats who opposed their party most often.

The average House Democrat voted with the party 92 percent of the time, a record.

"These numbers often reflect all votes taken, including the procedural votes,” Boren said. "I still remain in the top 10 of Democratic members of Congress with an independent voting record that reflects the values of my district.”

In fact, the House was tied up numerous times in 2007 on procedural votes forced by the Republican minority.

Many times, Republicans tried to shut down the House during debate on controversial issues. Republicans also often tried to send bills back to committees for changes, moves that were typically opposed by most Democrats.

Boren's support of President Bush, a Republican, was markedly lower in 2007 than in previous years.

According to Congressional Quarterly, Boren sided with the president's position 36 percent of the time in 2007.

The ‘party unity' scores
Congressional Quarterly, a weekly magazine that covers Capitol Hill and politics, does an annual study of "party unity” based on how often members side with their parties on votes in which the majority of one party is opposed to the majority of the other party.
In 2007, according to the magazine, the two parties aligned against each other on 730 roll call votes — 62 percent of the time.

The four House Republicans from Oklahoma all exceeded the 2007 average party unity score of 85 percent for House GOP members.

Freshman Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma City, serving her first year in the House, voted with the Republican majority 95 percent of the time. Rep. John Sullivan, R-Tulsa, voted with his party 98 percent of the time; Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, backed Republicans 92 percent of the time; and Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne, voted with the GOP 91 percent of the time.