The Club for Growth is asking bloggers to track the pork brought home by all 435 House Representatives. "Self," I said to myself, "this is a worthy cause." I nodded sagely and considered that it has been a while since I've done any real political blogging.
So, here's the deal: they want at least one blog in each of the 435 districts of the U.S. House of Representatives to track the recent voting record of their local representative on 19 anti-pork amendments proposed by Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ). They provide the data, we're supposed to blog about it. I'm in Washington's 2nd District, represented by Rick Larsen (D).
Overall, Washington representatives did a horrible job on supporting these anti-pork amendments. Our elected representatives went to the taxpayer trough and dug in: out of the 171 (9x19) possible votes, our representatives only supported anti-pork for a total of seven votes. That's not 7 out of 19 issues, that's seven individual votes. That's disgusting.
I'm not at all happy that my rep is one of the several 0/19 reps from this state. I'll be forwarding this URL to his contact email address...and I'll be posting a followup with any response that I receive. If you live in this district, please add your voice to mine in the comment section. If you're a Washington resident, find your rep in the table below and follow the link I've added to their contact information. Let them know what you think of their voting record!
Huge thanks to The Club for Growth for providing the data in the table below. I did some prettifying -- coloring the vote results really makes them stand out. The vote columns represent the House vote number.
| District |
Lawmaker (Party) |
Total |
190 |
191 |
192 |
204 |
205 |
277 |
278 |
279 |
280 |
298 |
299 |
302 |
303 |
304 |
334 |
335 |
336 |
337 |
338 |
| 1 |
Jay Inslee (D) |
1 |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| 2 |
Richard R. Larsen (D) |
0 |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| 3 |
Brian Baird (D) |
0 |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| 4 |
Richard Hastings (R) |
1 |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Other |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
| 5 |
Cathy McMorris (R) |
2 |
Other |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| 6 |
Norman D. Dicks (D) |
0 |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| 7 |
Jim McDermott (D) |
0 |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Other |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| 8 |
Dave Reichert (R) |
0 |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| 9 |
Adam Smith (D) |
3 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Note: my participation in this activity does not indicate an endorsement of The Club for Growth or their recommended candidates.
Updated: I've been doing some research trying to find out what each of these particular earmarks was and which state(s) it benefitted, as well as what bill it was attached to. So far, I've gotten to The U.S. Congress Votes Database (provided by the Washington Post) and can find the invidual votes, but find little information on linking those votes back to the particular amendments or earmarks they relate to. Anyone out there got more info?
Updated again: That's what I get for posting at oh-dark hundred. The specific vote information is listed at the bottom of the all 435 House Representatives page I originally linked to! Just keep scrolling.