Gillibrand Not Such A Blue Dog After All

I remember shortly after Kristen Gillibrand beat out John Sweeney and entered Congress, she also joined the conservatively-identified Blue Dog Democratic Caucus. It could have been a sign of her political leanings, or just the make-up of her district dictating that she lean more to the center. Now that she is being sworn in as the Junior Senator of New York today, critics on the left have labeled her as too far to the right, particularly on gun rights and immigration. Though that does not give us the full picture.

Here is some more:

The National Taxpayers Union rates members of Congress on “all votes that could significantly affect the amounts of federal taxes, spending, debt, or regulatory impact” — 427 House votes in 2007. In that session of Congress, the only one that Gillibrand served in for which scores have been calculated, Gillibrand voted with the taxpayers 7 percent of the time. That’s right, 7 percent. That makes her just as fiscally conservative as Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. Maxine Waters, and Rep. Henry Waxman. (Though, to be sure, it makes her just slightly more fiscally conservative than Rep. Rahm Emanuel, whom the newspapers have told us is a centrist.)

The ratings from Citizens Against Government Waste, on spending, earmark, and porkbarrel bills, tell the same story: Rep. Gillibrand voted against wasteful spending 8 percent of the time.

And similarly at the Club for Growth ratings: Gillibrand got a rating of 12. On the Club’s ratings, she never once voted in the interests of taxpayers, but she did vote for the U.S.-Peru free trade agreement. She also voted against reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. Combined with her 90 percent rating from the ACLU and her A rating from the NRA, maybe she is indeed a free-trader and a civil libertarian.

The "interests of taxpayers" is a relative term, since there are many more taxpayers than there are members of the NTU and the CfG. Yet the ratings are the ratings and do show that there is more to Senator Gillibrand than just immigration and gun rights. Those are important issues, and we can definitely push her to make smart decisions during this interim but I have a feeling she'll be voting for the interests of the majority of the state more often than not.

Of course if she doesn't, we all have the right to primary her out of office next year...and she knows that very well.