And Republicans are counting on this…..
Lefty Democrats don’t like it….
And the party has to live with it….
…’The end justifies the means’…..
Roll Call spotlights a few races where the effect is in play….
Blue Dog Democrats tend to move to the right in election years, which is understandable given that they typically represent swing districts.
And lately no district has swung more than Illinois’ 10th, in the affluent suburbs north of Chicago. Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider is currently serving his second, nonconsecutive term, having defeated Republican Robert J. Dold in 2016.
In 2014, Dold defeated Schneider, who was then in his first term, having beaten Dold in the 2012 election.
In 2017, Schneider was a relatively loyal Democrat, voting with his party on House votes that split a majority of Democrats from a majority of Republicans 88.1 percent of the time, compared to a party average of 96 percent.
But this year, he’s tied with Texas’ Henry Cueller with the second-lowest CQ party unity score among Democrats as of the end of June, 68.5 percent, trailing only Arizona Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.
Sinema, who is voting with fellow Democrats 66.3 percent of the time this year, is running for the Senate in the GOP-leaning state where Republican incumbent Jeff Flake is retiring after one term.
This year, Schneider has parted with his fellow Democrats to vote in favor of legislation that Congress passed in May to exempt mid-sized banks from Dodd-Frank regulations. And he was with the Republicans in March on a bill to allow people with terminal illnesses access to experimental drugs that haven’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, though Schneider later voted against a similar bill that was ultimately enacted….