As Congress has become more polarized, lawmakers within each party have become accustomed to sticking together – a reality reflected in the votes cast by the members of the Georgia delegation last year.
The Washington-based CQ Roll Call tabulated how every member of Congress voted on major legislation in 2015 and found that Georgia members overwhelmingly stuck with their political parties.
The news organization’s 2015 vote studies found that all 10 Georgia House Republicans voted in unity with their party on major legislation at least 97 percent of the time, higher than the average for the entire House GOP of 91 percent. Evans’ Rick Allen topped CQ’s list of party unity, tying with four others with a score of 99.4 percent.
Party unity was more of a mixed bag for Georgia Democrats. John Lewis of Atlanta and Hank Johnson of Lithonia voted with their leadership 99 percent and 98 percent, respectively, higher than the 90 percent average. Sanford Bishop of Albany had one of the lowest unity scores among House Democrats, with 87 percent.
In the Senate, Johnny Isakson and David Perdue voted with their leaders 95 and 96 percent of the time, respectively, higher than the Senate average.
Similar patterns emerged when looking at when lawmakers fell in line with President Barack Obama and his stated positions.
All of Georgia’s House Republicans voted with the president less than 10 percent of the time on key votes, slightly lower than the GOP average in the chamber. Perdue and Isakson, meanwhile, voted with Obama 53 and 58 percent of the time. The Senate GOP average was 53 percent, according to CQ.
Bishop and David Scott, D-Atlanta, voted with Obama 63 and 73 percent of the time, respectively, significantly lower than the average of 86 percent for House Democrats. Johnson and Lewis voted with Obama more than 90 percent of the time.
The reports can be found here and here (subscription required). A summary from Roll Call's David Hawkings, which focuses on Republican presidential candidates and fellow freshman Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, is here.
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