Info on PRESENT votes in Ilinois

[Windy]

http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/2007/12/04/about-those-present-votes/

About those “Present” votes *** Updated x3 ***

Tuesday, Dec 4, 2007

* The Tribune had this bit today on Hillary Clinton’s latest attack on Barack Obama…

also raised a new front on the issue of Obama’s use of “present” votes — rather than “yes” and “no” votes — on legislation when he was in the Illinois Senate, including on measures that dealt with Republican-led efforts to restrict abortion rights. <…>

Obama has defended his “present” votes on abortion-related bills in the Illinois legislature, contending it was part of a strategy fashioned with abortion-rights advocates to help give some Illinois Senate Democrats political cover and to avoid looking harsh by casting “no” votes that would create a re-election risk.

But the Tribune earlier this year found few lawmakers remembered such a strategy and many of those who joined with Obama to vote present were, like him, in politically safe districts.

* Maybe only a few members the Tribune contacted remember this ploy, but I do. It was specifically designed by Planned Parenthood to counter Republican Senate President Pate Philip’s barrage of hot-button abortion bills that he was continually trying to ram through the Senate in 2001 and 2002. The Tribune missed the point - and by not contacting the groups involved, flubbed the story.

Besides passing bills he supported, Pate’s idea was to cause a controversy by splitting “moderate” Democrats away from the abortion rights groups, thereby causing a rift on that side, and, more imporantly, to put some political targets on the hot seat. So, as they also did in the House a few years back, Planned Parenthood was encouraging “Present” votes by some of their more loyal members in order to encourage the moderates to vote that way as well.

* For instance, Senate Bill 1661, introduced in 2002, would have created the “Induced Birth Infant Liability Act.”

Provides that, if a child is born alive after an induced labor abortion or other abortion, a parent of the child or the public guardian may maintain an action on the child’s behalf for damages…

The bill passed with 31 votes, but it received 11 Present votes. Among those voting “P” were Republican Senators Christine Radogno and Adeline Geo-Karis. Moderate Democrats voting “P” were Molaro and Viverito. Sen. Pat Welch, a perennial political target who was finally defeated in 2004, also voted Present.

A companion bill, SB 1662, was also hugely controversial at the time…

Defines “born-alive infant” to include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development.

The roll call on that proposal was pretty much the same as the other one.

* Was the strategy a success? Planned Parenthood claims it was, but the bills still passed the Senate and not all politically vulnerable people stuck to the program. Sen. Debbie Halvorson voted “No” on both of those bills in 2002, when she was up for reelection, but voted “Present” the year before on pretty much the same legislation, SB 1094 and SB 1095

* Pam Sutherland of Planned Parenthood said today that Pate Philip “couldn’t use those votes against the moderates or against pro-choice people.” Sutherland also slammed Clinton. “Having come from Illinois, she doesn’t understand Illinois politics.” And Sutherland had this to say in today’s Sun-Times…

“The poor guy is getting all this heat for a strategy we, the pro-choice community, did,” said Pam Sutherland, president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council.

[dkf]

1. Illinois Planned Parenthood needs to speak up.

They shouldn't abandon someone who helped them out.

[sandnsea]

4. They have spoken up

This attack on abortion has left NH in an uproar because people who supported Clinton's attacks found out the truth afterwards. They are disrupting the Democratic Party everywhere they go. Students in Iowa. Women in NH. Latinos in the west. Blacks and whites in SC. Their disregard has been stunning.

[Tarc]

2. This sums it up a bit more accurately;

In Illinois, political experts say voting present is a relatively common way for lawmakers to express disapproval of a measure. It can at times help avoid running the risks of voting no, they add.

“If you are worried about your next election, the present vote gives you political cover,” said Kent D. Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “This is an option that does not exist in every state and reflects Illinois political culture.”

The vote on the juvenile-justice bill appears to be a case when Mr. Obama, who represented a racially mixed district on the South Side of Chicago, faced pressure. It also occurred about six months before he announced an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against a popular black congressman, Bobby L. Rush.

State Senator Christine Radogno, a Republican, was a co-sponsor of the bill to let children as young as 15 be prosecuted as adults if charged with committing a crime with a firearm on or near school grounds.

- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22335739/

While it does have legitimate purposes, it is also a cover-your-ass maneuver, which is how Obama seems to have utilized it.

[Windy]

3. And you post this when it clearly states that its a legitimate strategy move when legis. is bad!

You make the pure assumption that it was for political reasons only!! Planned Parenthood of Illinois has TRUMPED your argument with Obama's true motivation!!!

Start concentrating on rehabing HRC's poor voting record on the war and Iran...

She needs your help. Spreading disinformation on her behalf only makes things worse for her.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. He covered his ass 3.5% of the time

Wow. What a serial abuser. :eyes:

[IsItJustMe]

6. Thank you very much for this post. Makes a lot more sence to me now. To bad HRC didn't know this.