Djou: I Vote With Democrats 62 Percent of the Time
Republican Congressman Charles Djou has made his independence a central theme of his campaign.
For example, in a debate hosted by , he responded to a charge that he voted with Republicans 90 percent of the time by stating that he was actually the most independent representative of Hawaii.
“I also vote with the Democratic caucus 62 percent of the time,” Djou said. “That’s why I bucked my party to support the president’s moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill. That’s why I bucked my party and voted with the president on the Defense Authorization Act, which specifically related to the Guantanamo Bay. And that’s why I was willing to buck my party in what I thought the president had a good plan regarding energy efficiency.” (Djou’s comment begins at 16:30)
Moments later in her rebuttal, Djou’s Democratic opponent, Colleen Hanabusa, said, “Let us also be clear that Charles’ math doesn’t add up. You can’t vote 90 percent of the time with your party and 62 percent with the Democrats – So something is a miss.”
Civil Beat to the rescue.
What’s happening here? Is it possible that someone can vote with Republicans 90 percent of the time and Democrats 62 percent of the time?
As it turns out, it is. As is so often the case in politics, it just depends on your perspective.
Civil Beat counted each of Rep. Djou’s 270 votes since he took office in May. We counted how many times he voted solely with Democrats, how many times he voted solely with Republicans, how many times he and the two parties voted together, how many times Djou voted with neither party, how many times he didn’t vote and how many times he voted “present”. (Civil Beat used the Washington Post’s for this story.)
| Voted With Dems | Voted With Repubs | Voted With Both | Voted With Neither | No Vote | Voted ‘Present’ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | 93 | 143 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
The next question we asked is what percentage of his total votes each category accounted for. The answer is below:
| Voted With Dems | Voted With Repubs | Voted With Both | Voted With Neither | No Vote | Voted ‘Present’ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 34% | 53% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 1% |
The way that Djou got his 62 percent figure was by adding the times he voted solely with the Democratic party, 26, to the amount of times he voted with both Democrats and Republicans, 143. By taking these two numbers together, it is true that of his 270 votes, Djou voted with Democrats 169 times, or 63 percent of the time. (The difference in 1 percent is likely due to votes made by Djou after he made his claim in the debate.)
So, whether you consider it political finagling or not, Djou’s claim is factual.
By the way, the Washington Post that Djou’s colleague, Democratic Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, has voted with her party 98 percent of the time.
