Ever Feel Betrayed By Your Representative?

In the last Congressional election, I voted for Melissa Bean, a Democrat who upset Phil Crane. Crane was one of Congress' longest serving conservative Republicans, and he could be relied upon to take the most extreme right-wing positions on every issue. In recent years he was involved in a small sex scandal and had lost some of his lustre. The Democrats figured he was ripe for unseating, so they put a lot of money and effort behind Bean. And she won.

This year we have an independent candidate - Bill Scheurer - who calls himself a moderate and is trying to get on the ballot. He claims Bean has not acted like a Democrat in her voting. His website www.winwithbill.com points out several examples of her voting with the Republicans on crucial issues. I decided to check for myself, so I emailed her office for an explanation. After several weeks, I got a partial response which explained her vote to extend Bush's capital gains tax cuts. She was one of only 9 Democrats to cross party lines on this issue. She didn't address my other questions, so I can only assume Scheurer was right about those as well.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't particularly care whether Melissa Bean is a conservative, or thinks she needs to be to get re-elected. My problem is she didn't portray herself that way. How many freshmen congressmen break party lines on critical votes? I feel my vote was taken under false pretenses.

Everytime you hear about some crazy debate in Congress, or see them wasting time and taxpayer money so they can grandstand, ask yourself if you are partly to blame. It is incumbent on us to know where these people stand on the issues we really care about. I recommend Project Vote Smart www.vote-smart.org as a good way to become better informed. You owe it to all of us.