Some Democrats Vote With Boehner Touting Independence [View all]

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/some-democrats-vote-with-boehner-touting-independence.html

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner rarely casts floor votes, following his office’s tradition. When the Ohio Republican has voted this year, Arizona Democrat Ron Barber sided with him more often than not, while Republican Walter Jones of North Carolina usually didn’t.

Barber, whose district President Barack Obama lost in the 2012 election, is among a small number of House Democrats who at times have aligned with Republicans as they project political independence ahead of potentially difficult re-election campaigns next year.

Jones and a handful of Republican colleagues, meanwhile, exemplify party members with libertarian views who have complicated Boehner’s management of the House by pushing him to take a harder line against Obama on fiscal policy and showing a willingness to break with the speaker.

Barber, who’s serving his first full term, sided with Boehner on 10 of the 16 votes by the speaker. That’s the most among the House’s 200 Democratic members, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Twelve other Democrats, including Representatives Mike McIntyre of North Carolina and Jim Matheson of Utah, voted the same as Boehner at least half of those times.