On Friday the U.S. House vote 246-182 for a resolution disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007 to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

The non-binding measure had near unanimous support from within the Democratic Party, with 229 of 231 voting House members approving the resolution. Only Representatives Jim Marshall (GA-08) and Gene Taylor (MS-04) defected from the majority party.

Seventeen GOP legislators supported the resolution, or nearly 1 in 10 of the Republicans who voted on Friday. Among the 17 defectors were two representatives from the Upper Midwest—Tom Petri (WI-06) and Jim Ramstad (MN-03). Neither Petri nor Ramstad can be accused of playing politics with the Iraq issue as neither candidate has been involved in a close election in years (in 2006 Ramstad won by 30 points and Petri ran unopposed). In fact, only 3 of the 17 Republicans who defected from their party leadership on this vote were involved in close races in 2006:

Jim Walsh (NY-25; +2 point 2006 victory margin)
Mark Kirk (IL-10; +6 points)
Ric Keller (FL-08; +7 points)

Overall, 16 of the 22 representatives from Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin voted for the House resolution.

Posted in Iraq, Minnesota, MN US House, National Politics, U.S. House

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