“Party-line vote”

I’m assuming you’ve signed this already.  But if you haven’t, seriously, get on it.

Last week, the AJC reported on a budget amendment that Senator Tate proposed to the budget.  It would have redirected $150,000 from Georgia Public Broadcasting into the education budget.  For some strange reason, Georgia Republicans balked at this.

The line from the AJC article that caught my eye however was this:

The Democratic amendment — which would have cut GPB’s budget by $150,000 — was defeated 35-13 on a party-line vote. Rogers’ salary is $150,000.

That kind of shocked me, because my 8th grade Georgia History class taught me that we have 56 state senators.  But 35 + 13 = 48.

I’m also aware that there are 18 Democratic Senators and 38 Republican Senators, so I assumed the vote would have had 18 on “our side” but as you can see, there was only 13…  so who didn’t vote?  Thankfully, our friends at Better Georgia provided this list of the 13 Senators who voted “our way” and the 35 Senators who didn’t vote “our way.”

I assumed based on the raw number that 5 Democrats and 3 Republicans missed the vote…  until I looked closer and realized that I was wrong, and an equal number missed the vote from both parties, only 4 Democrats missed the vote, along with 4 Republicans.

But wait, shouldn’t that mean a “party-line” vote would be 34-14?  With 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans not voting, that’s what a party line vote in the Georgia State Senate should look like, except, it wasn’t really a party line vote.

1 Democrat voted alongside 34 Republicans.  Only 1.

I’m not sure why there were 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans that didn’t vote.  I have no idea if they were present in the chamber and just sat on their hands, or if they were excused for some reason.  That doesn’t matter to me…  you see, if you don’t vote, you don’t vote…  there’s no record.

But when you do vote, there is a record.  And when you’re the 1 Democrat who votes with the Republican Caucus…  that rubs me the wrong way.  Especially if you’re floating yourself to be the DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE for the United States Senate.

BTW, I did e-mail Senator Thompson asking for a comment, over 24 hours ago…  hoping maybe it was one of those votes for the purpose of a “motion to recommit” or some procedure stuff that I don’t know about…  no comment thus far.