Justice Sotomayor has been confirmed in the US Senate by a vote of 68-31 with Kennedy (D-Mass) absent due to illness. Nine Republicans, including Senator Graham of South Carolina voted to confirm her.
Here are the Republicans who voted to confirm:
Voinovich (R-OH)
Collins (R-ME)
Snowe (R-ME)
Greeg (R-NH)
Lugar (R-IN)
Bond (R-MO)
Graham (R-SC)
Alexander (R-TN)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)
The CNN story linked above notes that none of them are seeking reelection in 2010. One might also note that only three of the nine are from Southern states and one of them is a Hispanic from Florida. Three of them are from New England where Republicans are an endangered species. Two are from the "swing states" of Ohio and Missouri and the final Senator in the group is the "mavricky" Richard Lugar of Indiana (a traditionally Republican state that recently looked to be trending in a swing state direction).
Interestingly, Indiana, South Carolina and Tennessee all have many counties where the growth in the Hispanic population between 2000 and 2007 is over 40%. I don't intend to make any causal claims - not enough evidence for that. I just did a quick search and found some interesting data points.
UPDATE: Mel Martinez (R-Fl) just announced he is resigning from the Senate as soon as a replacement can be named by the governor - Charlie Crist.
3 comments:
I think the southern state votes were for political expediency, as I think you are intimating...I think AZ is interesting. McCain is definitely pandering to the Minute Men...AZ is over 30% Hispanic and in 2004, had the fastest growing Hispanic population in the US...thanks for the list...
WW
I suspect what we have here is that 31 Republicans have now signaled that they will vote against anyone President Obama nominates to the Supreme Court. But I wonder if Obama inadvertently set himself up for this a bit when, as a Senator, he voted against both of Former President Bush's nominees--Roberts and Alito.
68-31 is a pretty good vote given the determination of the GOP to oppose any nominee who isn't a Republican. It shows the President is more popular than you might think from listening to pundits, and not everyone wants to alienate him.
Post a Comment