Goodlatte’s perfect attendance.

Posted byWaldo Jaquith 4 Comments on Goodlatte’s perfect attendance.

I heard on WINA that Rep. Bob Goodlatte is one of only four representatives in the nation with a perfect voting record — he never missed a vote. Very impressive!

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

4 replies on “Goodlatte’s perfect attendance.”

  1. Unfortunately, I can think of a few votes he should have missed. That whole NAFTA/CAFTA/MFN trading status for China … there’s three right there.

    Does it have anything to do with his proximity to DC and the fact that he’s never had serious opposition, unlike nearly any other congressman?

  2. If proximity has anything to do with votes, it would be interesting to see how the NOVA and MD reps did. I really think that Goodlatte is a man that takes his responsibility seriously. If he missed a good deal of votes, maybe the Dems would see more of a reason to challenge him!

  3. While there’s a lot to be said for a legislator having good attendance (we’re paid to show up, after all), there’s a downside to making a fetish of maintaining a 100% record. The Congressman I worked for for a number of years advised incoming freshmen that the best thing would be to miss a vote early in their time in office. That way, they’d avoid the spectacle of a member with 30 or 40 years of seniority, ill and at the end of his career, literally being wheeled into the House chamber on a hospital gurney so he could vote and preserve his perfect record. (Congressman Goodlatte doesn’t have to worry about that issue for a couple of decades, of course.)

    At the level of the “citizen legislature” in Richmond, there’s a process for a seatmate to announce at the beginning of a daily session that a member is “away on pressing personal business” — including unavoidable professional/business obligations. It’s actually surprising how infrequently it’s invoked: members do all they can to keep their personal calendars clear during the session, often at some cost to their professions and businesses.

  4. I don’t like Bob Goodlatte’s views, but he appears to be dedicated. My only question is, what are the other 431 representatives being paid for?

    I propose a system where we pay our congressmen for each vote cast by them. If you miss a vote; you don’t get paid for it.

    That would solve the unproductive congress problem relatively quickly…

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