Campaigns keep
contenders
away from local duties
By Miriam Raftery
The Alpine Sun
Every school child knows that attendance counts. Of the seven
officials representing San Diego County residents in the House
and Senate, all but one have absentee rates in the low single
digits. Local Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) however, has
missed 28.8 percent of all votes cast in the 110th Congress,
garnering the fifth highest absentee rate among the 435 members
in the House of Representatives.
“Congressman Hunter does the best he can to balance his
responsibilities as he travels throughout this great country to
discuss the future of America,” said Joe Kasper, communications
director/legislative assistant for Rep. Hunter.
Of the four House members with higher absentee rates
than Hunter, two representatives (Charles Norwood and Juanita
Millender-McDonald) have died of cancer and a third is battling
breast cancer. The fourth, Barbara Cubin, had a heart attack in
2005 and later underwent heart surgery.
Key votes missed by Hunter, who is running for
President, included the Defense Appropriations Bill, Energy
Bill, Hate Crimes Prevention Act, Human Cloning Prohibition Act,
Foreign Intelligence Acquisition Act, Commerce, Justice &
Science Appropriations Bill, Renewable Energy & Energy
Conservation Tax Act, and the U.S. Attorneys Act.
Among San Diego County’s Congressional delegation,
Democrat Susan Davis had the best attendance record, missing
just 0.2 percent of votes, followed by Republican Brian Bilbray
(2 percent), Republican Darrell Issa (2.4 percent), and Democrat
Bob Filner (2.4 percent). On the Senate side, California
Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, had
absentee rates of 1.4 percent and 4.3 percent.
Among Presidential contenders in the House, the record
of missed votes ranged from Republicans Tom Tancredo and Ron
Paul who posted 28.3 percent and 20.6 percent. Democratic
candidate Dennis Kucinich had the lowest absentee rate among
House Presidential candidates, at 9.7 percent.
“We’re paying these people to be legislators and they
are actually campaigners,” observed Bob Stern, president, Center
for Governmental Studies, Los Angeles, a nonpartisan research
organization that looks at campaign financing and ethics.
In the Senate, where Democrats hold a razor-thin
one-vote majority, the Democratic Party has been particularly
concerned over the prospect of four Democratic Senators (Biden,
Clinton, Dodd and Obama) potentially missing a decisive vote.
“There is a real balancing act,” Stern observed.
“Incumbents have a great advantage because they can continue to
be paid. If I wanted to run for President, I’d have to leave my
job. Congress is one of the few place where you can actually
seek another job and continue to get your salary paid.”
“When you run for president you are taken much more
seriously by people, but when you are a legislator, the question
is how much attention are you paying to your legislative duties?
The answer is ‘Not much,’ because running for President is a
full time job.”
In the Senate, only six of the 100 members had absentee
rates higher than 10 percent. Of those, one (Tim Johnson)
suffered a brain hemorrhage. The other five are running for
President. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) posted the worst record of
missed votes (49.8 percent), followed by Senators Sam Brownback
(R-KS) at 38 percent, Joseph Biden (D-DE) 29.2 percent,
Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 27.7 percent, and Barack Obama (D-IL)
23.7 percent.
Reactions to Hunter’s high absentee rate split
predictably along party lines among local leaders.
“Duncan Hunter has been in Congress for 28 years and he
has done so much for the country. He’s been a wonderful patriot,
so I just don’t think it’s right to hold it against him,” said
El Cajon resident Muriel Pappin, president of the Alpine
Mountain Empire Republican Women’s Federation. “A lot of the
Presidential candidates are missing a lot of votes, Democrats
and Republicans,” she said.
But Ray Lutz, President of the East County Democratic
Club, expressed relief that Hunter has missed so many votes,
adding that he faults Hunter for failing to provide adequate
body armor and fully-armored Humvee vehicles for U.S. troops.
“I’m happy that he’s not there!” Lutz exclaimed in an
e-mail. “It is better for our country for Hunter to be out of
the office.”
The high absentee rate of Hunter and other Presidential
contenders currently serving in Congress raises another
troubling issue. This election, several states including
California have moved their primary elections up earlier in an
effort to have more clout and avoid having strong candidates
eliminated from the before their states’ primaries are held.
But earlier primaries means a longer campaign season —
and potentially more missed votes by those seeking to hold onto
their legislative seats while also hitting the campaign trail.
“Voters lose when the campaign season turns into a
fight for the earliest primary,” said Christina Lokke, policy
advocate at California Common Cause in Sacramento. “Candidates
must raise more and more money to campaign, resulting in less
time spent actually doing their jobs.”
“Beginning the campaign season earlier only increases
the amount of money that candidates need, placing more and more
emphasis on big donors rather than the average voters. Obviously
it’s expected that candidates will need to be out campaigning,
but they need to strike a balance and they know they need to do
that before they run.”
Told of the high absentee rates by McCain, Hunter, and
other presidential candidates in both houses of Congress, a
League of Women Voters representative who asked not to be named
responded, “That’s shocking.” The LWV has no official policy on
absenteeism, however, and the official declined to comment on
the propriety of members missing votes for prolonged periods
while seeking higher office.
But San Diego County Democratic Party chairman Jess
Durfee called on Hunter to resign from his Congressional seat if
the Congressman will not substantially improve his attendance
through next year’s Presidential primary season.
“At some point Duncan Hunter needs to decide if he
wants to represent his district or run for President,” Durfee
concluded.
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