Upper Midwest House Members Vote Along Party Lines On Iraq Withdrawal

On Thursday the U.S. House voted 223-201 to require the Secretary of Defense to commence the reduction of the number of United States Armed Forces in Iraq to a limited presence by April 1, 2008.

The Upper Midwestern delegation voted strictly along party lines: Democratic Representatives Oberstar, Walz, Peterson, Ellison, and McCollum from Minnesota, Braley, Loebsack, and Boswell from Iowa, Baldwin, Kind, Moore, Obey, and Kagen from Wisconsin, and Herseth from South Dakota all supported the Democratic-sponsored legislation. Republican Representatives King and Latham from Iowa, Ramstad, Bachmann, and Kline from Minnesota, and Ryan, Sensenbrenner, and Petri from Wisconsin voted against the bill.

Back in February 2007, two of these Republicans (MN's Jim Ramstad and WI's Tom Petri) voted with the Democrats 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.

Only four House Republicans voted against their party leadership on Thursday:

Jimmy Duncan (TN-02)
Jo Ann Emerson (MO-08)
Wayne Gilchrest (MD-01)
Walter Jones (NC-03).

None of these legislators faced close elections in 2006—winning with 72, 78, 69, and 69 percent of the vote respectively. Ten Democrats voted with the GOP:

John Barrow (GA-12)
Dan Boren (OK-02)
Brad Ellsworth (IN-08)
Christopher Carney (PA-10)
Tim Holden (PA-17)
Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)
Jim Marshall (GA-08)
Jim Matheson (UT-02)
Vic Snyder (AR-02)
Gene Taylor (MS-04)

Marshall and Taylor also voted against their party leadership in February's nonbinding resolution on the President's troop escalation plan.

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