Excellant question. Here's the break down....
List of 23 Democrats who broke with their party and courageously stood against illegal immigration (are any of these in your area? call to thank them)
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Alexander (LA)
Berry (AR)
Carson (OK)
Costello (IL)
Cramer (AL)
Davis (TN)
DeFazio (OR)
Gordon (TN)
Hall (TX)
Hill (IN)
Holden (PA)
Lipinski (IL)
Lucas (KY)
Lynch (MA)
Marshall (GA)
Matheson (UT)
McIntyre (NC)
Peterson (MN)
Ross (AR)
Skelton (MO)
Stenholm (TX)
Tanner (TN)
Taylor (MS)
These are really courageous Members. If you are worked up and ready to do some more work tomorrow, why don't you phone the ones that are from your state and tell their staffs how proud you are of them.
Get their phone numbers at:
http://www.numbersusa.com/congressinfo/
Some have told our lobbyists that they feel like they went out on a limb and will get blasted back home for their vote. It is up to you to make sure that these Democrats get more "warming rays" of support that blasts of criticism. Please let us know if you see any media sign of criticism of these Democrats.
There actually are several Democrats who have worked with us on other things who aren't on the Yea list here. So the list of potential ally Democrats is larger than even these 23.
Those who think that we might somehow get our immigration house in order entirely with Republican votes have not counted the votes very well. There will always be enough Republicans who are totally committed to helping Robber Barons get cheap foreign labor and hold down the wages of Americans to keep immigration reforms from going through -- unless a significant part of the Democratic Party reflects the will of its citizen-members and also votes for the reforms.
To win on the Norwood bill, we will need most if not all of these 23 Democrats. So those of you who live in their states -- particularly if you are Democrats -- need to do all you can to nurture this kind of civic leadership for the future.
Besides giving these Democrats as much support as you can, study them and raise them as examples for other Democrats in your part of the state. Suggest to those other Democrats that they join the 23 in this list.
Interestingly, the list includes Rep. Holden (D-PA) the Blue Dog Democrat who defeated House immigration chairman Rep. Gekas (R-PA) last fall when re-districting threw the two into the same district. Gekas in his single term as chairman had introduced a fantastic SAFER Act to greatly reduce immigration. So his defeat might have been interpreted as a negative sign about constituents of that district.
However, there was Gekas' conqueror today voting on our side of the immigration issue. The fact is that Mr. Holden is in a tight, swing district. Any Democrat in his position ought to be voting with us. I have told many Democrats in districts like that repeatedly that any Democrat in a swing district is politically crazy not to be a strong advocate for immigration reductions because that is the way to win swing votes and stay in office.
Also, you will notice that the Democrats voting with us are from all over the country, including Massachusetts.
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5. INFO---List of 21 Republicans who apparently have so little commitment to stopping illegal immigration that they were willing to vote against all of their party leaders and against 90% of the members of their party.
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Biggert (IL)
Bono (CA)
Davis (VA)
Diaz-Balart (FL)
Dias-Balart (FL)
Dreier (CA)
Ehlers (MI)
Gillmore (OH)
Hensarling (TX)
Kolbe (AZ)
Leach (IA)
Lewis (CA)
Linder (GA)
Ose (CA)
Pearce (NM)
Porter (IL)
Pryce (OH)
Renzi (AZ)
Ros-Lehtinen (FL)
Smith (NJ)
Weller (IL)
This is the list of Republicans who potentially stand in the way of this country finally getting a handle on illegal immigration. Some of them may have some reasonable justifications for their vote today. We should not write most of them off (although a few of them are probably hopelessly committed to open borders).
If you are in the states of any of these, perhaps you can find ways to talk with their offices and help us discover how to bring them around on something like the Norwood bill.
You can figure out which Republicans voted with most other Republicans for the reform amendment and which Democrats voted with most other Democrats against the reform amendment. Just know that these 11 did not vote:
NOT VOTING
Berkley (NV) D
Ferguson (NJ) R
Gephardt (MO) D
Hastert (IL) R
Hayworth (AZ) R
Janklow (SD) R
Jefferson (LA) D
Millender-McDonald (CA) D
Smith (WA) D
Spratt (SC) D
Weldon (FL) R
Though he is not my congressman, I'm going to E-mail Ike Skelton and thank him for his support. I often E-mail Reps Todd Akin and Sam Graves of Mo. thanking them for joining up with Tom Tancredo's Immigration Reform Caucus.
My state did pretty good on this vote, five solid republican votes and one courageous Democrat against two leftist (Clay and McCarthey) with a no-vote from Gephardt (big surprise).