Obama Often Absent For Senate Votes

CHICAGO (WBBM) - Senator Barack Obama is giving it his all in a run for the White House, but is he ignoring his “day job”?

WBBM’s Bernie Tafoya has the story.

An examination of Senator Obama’s voting record in the Senate finds he has the worst voting record in the past two months of the four Democratic senators seeking their party’s nomination for president.

During September and October, Senator Obama missed 71--or nearly 80 percent--of the 89 votes that have taken place in the Senate.

In contrast, the perceived front-runner in the contest for the Democratic nomination for president, Senator Hillary Clinton has missed 57—64 percent--of the 89 votes taken.

Clinton has missed only 17 percent of the 401 votes taken in 2007 while  Obama has missed nearly 33 percent, a similar percentage as two other senators running for president, Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd.

In the past two months, Senator Dodd has missed 65 percent of the votes, while Senator Biden missed nearly 70 percent.

Among votes Obama did miss were the Sense of the Senate resolution on Iran, a resolution condemning those who would publicly criticize General David Petraeus, who is in charge of the Iraq War, and yesterday, a vote to end debate on a measure to provide 26 weeks of leave for family members who need to care for an injured serviceman or woman.

Obama was the only one of the four to miss the Iran resolution vote, a vote on an amendment to redeploy American troops out of Iraq and a vote on a resolution to improve security at United States’ borders. 

He also missed a vote on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) bill while Senators Clinton and Dodd did vote on it.  Biden also missed the vote.

Political scientists say missing such a large number of votes while running for president will not hurt Obama in the long run--that is, at re-election time should he not win the nomination and the presidency--as long as the votes he missed would not have made a difference.

Professor Dick Simpson, of the University of Illinois-Chicago, says voters tend to understand that, when a senator or congressman is running for higher office, such as for president or for governor, “they’re not there as frequently.” 

Besides, Simpson points out, “At the moment, Obama is wildly popular in Illinois and would win re-election” against any Democrat or Republican.

Professor Brian Gaines, of the University of Illinois-Urbana’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs, agrees with Simpson and says Obama “is not likely to face a big backlash”, that aside from this year of running for president, “he’s not a serial misser.”

Obama is not up for re-election until 2010.  Gaines says Obama might have faced a bit of trouble if he were running for re-election sooner than that.

Senator Obama’s government spokeswoman Amy Brundage says in an e-mailed response to Newsradio 780 that, “Throughout the campaign, Senator Obama has balanced his duties as a Senator and a presidential candidate.  He has been here in the Senate during close votes on many issues, and to debate Iraq legislation.”

As for the presidential candidate in the Senate with the overall worst voting record this year, it’s Senator John McCain, on the Republican side.

McCain has missed more than 52 percent of the 401 votes this year.