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Those 12 Disappearing Votes

by: elwood

Thu May 21, 2009 at 22:12:41 PM EDT


As we discussed earlier, the House vote Wednesday can be broken down into several distinct chunks by comparing it to the earlier vote on HB 436 (the May 6th vote, agreeing to Senate tweaks.)  The biggest groups are those who supported marriage equality in both votes (162) and those who opposed both times (160).

Of the other permutations, the critical group is: those Representatives who voted Yes before, and missed the vote Wednesday. There are 12 names on the list, all Democrats:

  1. Komi, Richard
  2. McMahon, Patricia
  3. O'Brien, Michael
  4. Petterson, Don
  5. Reardon, Tara
  6. Rosenwald, Cindy
  7. Russell, Trinka
  8. DeJoie, John*
  9. Flurey, Joan
  10. Laliberte, Suzanne
  11. Matheson, Robert
  12. Sprague, Dale

#5, Tara Reardon, had no chance to vote this time: she has been named state Commissioner of Employment Security and therefore resigned. Congratulations, Ms. Reardon!

#8, John DeJoie, has explained here that he needed to bring his son to the hospital. I hope all is well with his family.

That leaves ten other votes that went missing. Some, perhaps all, may have completely understandable explanations.

This thread is a chance to provide those explanations.

elwood :: Those 12 Disappearing Votes
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Congrats (4.00 / 1)
to Commissioner Reardon, it was announced at the afternoon session of the House on Wednesday.

Special Election time in Concord!


Could she not have (0.00 / 0)
resigned a day later?

Or if she had to resign by law, could she not have asked that the appointment be made a day later?


[ Parent ]
Commissioner Reardon (4.00 / 1)
was sworn in last week, and resigned from the House last week.

Its not like she resigned right before the vote, it happened last week.

Besides, having a Commissioner of Employment Security on the job is very important at the moment.


[ Parent ]
I think resignation is the only reasonable choice (0.00 / 0)
Otherwise every vote is portrayed as under the direction of the Governor rather than the constituents.

(Gregg didn't resign, he just went AWOL on votes, when he was teasing Obama about Commerce.)


[ Parent ]
Thank you (4.00 / 1)
Thanks for this thread, elwood. I appreciate your taking the time. I hope that we do hear from each of those that missed this crucial vote.

Again, I don't want to name names, but some of the people on the list are notorious for their frequent absence -- several were absent for fully 25% or more of high-impact, "big-ticket" House votes in 2008 :(


I completely reject the use of violence to effect social and political change.
End the wars. ALL OF THEM.


And some undoubtedly have very good reasons (0.00 / 0)
for missing this time.


[ Parent ]
#4 (4.00 / 2)
Petterson had an excused absence, someone mentioned an illness in the family.  (I'm not really comfortable sharing other people's medical stuff in an open forum...however, it will be in the Permanent Journal so it isn't exactly a secret.)

He's practically never absent and is a solid Yes.  Unfortunately circumstances prevented his being present that day.  But I have no doubts that next time he'll vote in favor.


#7 (4.00 / 2)
One of Rep. Russell's children endured 12 hours of surgery on Wed.  Again, an excused absence due to family medical situation.

* (4.00 / 1)
And let's not forget the other Rep. Russell WAS there.  Given those circumstances, you certainly won't hear any complaints from this constituent.  

[ Parent ]
#10 (4.00 / 2)
Suzie Laliberte had a medical appointment and had to leave Concord before the afternoon session. Her support for passage will be noted in the House Record. She is determined to be present on June 3rd.

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