Adam Brown analyzes the 2014 Legislature in several new blog posts (see recap here), looking at the bill processing rate, absenteeism, who sponsored the most legislation, and other issues.
Notes Brown in his post on the Legislature’s penchant for cross-party consensus voting:
This means that Republicans and Democrats typically vote together. A “party-line” vote—that is, a vote where a majority of Republicans votes against a majority of Democrats—is rare in the Legislature. In 2014, only 10% of House votes and 5% of Senate votes were decided along party lines. Those numbers were marginally lower than in recent years….
We shouldn’t be surprised by this result. The 2012 elections gave us the second-most Republican Legislature in the past 80 years. Democrats control 14 of 75 House seats and 5 of 29 Senate seats. By playing nice, Democrats ensure that Republicans will reciprocate. In fact, Democrats managed to pass 49% of their bills this year despite their small numbers.
