The Democrat Walk-Out Trend

It seems that ever since Tea Party backed Republican candidates won Governorships and majority control of several state legislatures in the 2010 elections, the elected Democrats in those states, apparently not used to being the minority party, have responded by walking out on their duties as state officials to prevent action by the majority party officials and/or Republican Governors trying to reduce government spending.

The scene above shows the public union backed protesters who descended upon the Wisconsin state Capitol in early 2011 when newly elected Governor Scott Walker introduced legislation to gain control over union contracts and increase state union workers' contributions to their pensions. To try to prevent a vote on Walker's proposals, the Democratic Senators of Wisconsin fled the state so a quorum could not be convened to allow the Senate to vote on the legislation. After a month of protests and litigation by the unions, the budget bill finally became law.

Wisconsin was only the first such "Walk Out" to gain national attention. Since then Democrats in other states have followed the same tactic. Early this year, House Democrats in Indiana walked out. The House Democratic leader said "his members had been forced to boycott the first day of the new session to thwart a Republican effort to quickly ram the so-called right-to-work measure through the house.... Without the Democrats in attendance, the House does not have the quorum it needs to conduct business. Under the proposed law, employees at unionized private workplaces would not be required to pay union dues. Supporters say the move would attract jobs to Indiana. Critics call it union busting."

But this was not the first time Indiana Democrats fled the scene of their official duties. "Last year, House Democrats fled the state to neighboring Illinois to avoid voting on a similar right-to-work bill and other legislation they viewed as anti-labor and anti-public education. The bill died, and other bills were altered. The absentees were fined and a bill that raised the amount of money that could be collected from absent legislators was enacted." http://news.yahoo.com/walkout-indiana-democrats-stalls-anti-union-bill-005825947.html

The Indiana House Speaker said there would be no fines involved with this year's absences, but he criticized the Democrats for failing to do the jobs they were elected to do.

In Iowa, House Democrats walked out to protest proposed new gun laws under consideration early this year. "One bill would allow people to use deadly force to protect themselves and the other called for writing gun rights protections into the Iowa Constitution. The second measure would have to be approved by another legislative assembly next year and then be referred to voters." http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/iowa-house-approves-2iowa-house-approves-2-1367592.html The forty Iowa Democratic House members returned to carry out their elected duties after they decided that their action had made their point.

Now this tactic has taken a new twist in my home state of Virginia. Instead of walking out, the Democratic Senators in Virginia (who hold 20 seats in the state Senate, the same number as the Republicans) are simply voting "No" on the state budget bill which requires 21 votes to pass. One local newspaper called the Democrats' action a "tantrum" because the committee chairmanships were not shared between Republicans and Democrats. Instead Republican Lt. Governor Bill Bolling determined that he could cast tie-breaking votes on committee assignments under the state constitution. As a result, Republicans chair all Senate committees to the disgust of the Democrats. However, Bolling cannot vote on budget bills, which has given the Democrats a new weapon to demonstrate their disapproval over committee assignments.

The Virginia Senate Democrats objected to the budget bill because "it didn't include enough money for public schools. It didn't have enough for safety net programs. It didn't sufficiently buy down the cost of impending road tolls here and in Northern Virginia.

All are decent points that deserved to be heard. But not one of the 20 Democratic senators brought up those concerns or any others when the budget came up for a vote two hours earlier. Instead, Democrats sat silently and pressed a button to vote 'Nay.'" http://hamptonroads.com/2012/03/democrats-tantrum-over-states-budget

Of particular concern to me is that my own newly elected state Democratic Senator (for whom I did not vote) did not even show up to vote on the budget bill since she apparently knew that the fix was in to prevent 21 votes for the bill. Instead, State Senator Barbara Favola appeared on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on MSNBC to discuss the "Republican War on Women", as she described the bills regulating abortion in Virginia that have been under consideration.

Since Senator Favola's absence did not affect the outcome due to the Democrats' straight party line "Nay" vote, she said her television appearance served the "greater good". Favola was not the only Senator to miss the vote. Two other Democratic Senators failed to vote as well. Presumably they were also serving the "greater good" by attacking Republicans somewhere instead of performing the duties to which they were elected. Sphere: Related Content