Ramstad breaks ranks for Democrats’ agenda

01/21/2007

By Brady Averill, Star Tribune
Last update: January 20, 2007 – 5:59 PM


WASHINGTON - So far, Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota seems to be fitting in fine with the new Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.

When Minnesota's House members voted on the Democrats' six-item "first 100 hours" agenda during the last two weeks, they voted along party lines on almost every issue. With one exception: Ramstad voted with the Democrats every time.

Ramstad is a prime example of the difficulty Republicans are having in holding their party together during the transition of power in Washington. So far, he has sided with Democrats to support increasing the minimum wage, enacting the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, expanding stem cell research, allowing the government to negotiate prices with drug companies, cutting student loan interest rates and ending subsidies for oil companies.

"I've always worked in a bipartisan, pragmatic way to get things done," Ramstad said in an interview Friday. "These are issues that the Republican-led Congress should have passed, and we didn't get them done."

Republican Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann voted against all of the Democratic proposals. Minnesota Democrats stuck together except on stem cell research: Reps. Collin Peterson and Jim Oberstar voted against expanding it.

Ramstad, ranked last year as the fourth most "centrist" House member by the National Journal, said voting with Democrats is nothing new.

"Suffice it to say, I haven't changed my stripe," he said.

Ramstad often parts ways with his party on health and environmental issues. He's going on a nationwide tour with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to talk about mental health parity legislation, named for the late Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone. He recently cosponsored a bill that would designate Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area with permanent protection, preventing oil drilling. He also split with his party last spring when he voted against a bill that would have sped up logging of burned trees and planting new trees after fires and storms. And he was the only Republican U.S. House candidate from Minnesota to be endorsed by the Sierra Club this year.

Given his record, Ramstad's latest moves aren't surprising, said Kathryn Pearson, a congressional politics expert at the University of Minnesota. But Democratic control means he'll have more chances to break with his party, she said.

"He is a centrist and when the other party controls the agenda, the areas where he disagrees with his party become more visible," she said.

While the moderate lawmaker might appear slightly out of step with Republicans, Pearson said he's not out of step with his constituents. His district voted for President Bush in 2004, but by a small margin, she said. "I couldn't imagine any of these votes getting him in trouble with his district," she said.

Much of the six-point agenda contained "common-sense" measures, said Jess McIntosh, spokesperson for the DFL. She said it was easy to understand why Republicans voted for some issues, in particular the College Student Relief Act, which garnered 124 GOP votes. Increasing the minimum wage got the second highest number of votes from Republicans, with 82 voting in favor of it.

Ramstad said he works for his constituents, even if that means crossing the aisle from time to time. "Of course, I'll continue to work in a bipartisan way to get things done," he said. "Neither party has a lock on good ideas or bad ideas."