Here Come The Freshmen

Donald Norcross (D-NJ)-- there's already a worst new Democrat in Congress

This week the 58 freshmen elected in November will be sworn in as members of Congress. There are 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats. First the Democrats:

• Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
• Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
• Pete Aguilar (D-CA)
• Ted Lieu (D-CA)
• Norma Torres (D-CA)
• Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL)
• Mark Takai (D-HI)
• Seth Moulton (D-MA)
• Debbie Dingell (D-MI)
• Brenda Lawrence (D-MI)
• Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE)
• Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
• Kathleen Rice (D-NY)
• Brendan Boyle (D-PA)
• Don Beyer (D-VA)

And these are the Republicans, the class of misanthropes courtesy of Steve Israel and his incompetently-run DCCC. (The percentage next to each name indicates Obama's vote in 2012)

• Gary Palmer (R-AL)- 25%
• Sally McSally (R-AZ)- 48%
• French Hill (R-AR)- 43%
• Bruce Westerman (R-AR)- 36%
• Steve Knight (R-CA)- 48%
• Mimi Waters (R-CA)- 43%
• Ken Buck (R-CO)- 39%
• Carlos Curbelo (R-FL)- 53%
• Buddy Carter (R-GA)- 43%
• Jody Hice (R-GA)- 36%
• Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)- 32%
• Rick Allen (R-GA)- 44%
• Bob Dold (R-IL)- 58%
• Mike Bost (R-IL)- 50%
• Rod Blum (R-IA)- 56%
• David Young (R-IA)- 51%
• Ralph Abraham (R-LA)- 38%
• Garret Graves (R-LA)- 32%
• Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)- 53%
• John Moolenaar (R-MI)- 45%
• Mike Bishop (R-MI)- 48%
• David Trott (R-MI)- 47%
• Tom Emmer (R-MN)- 41%
• Ryan Zinke (R-MT)- 42%
• Cresent Hardy (R-NV)- 54%
• Frank Guinta (R-NH)- 50%
• Tom MacArthur (R-NJ)- 52%
• Lee Zeldin (R-NY)- 50%
• Elise Stefanik (R-NY)- 52%
• John Katko (R-NY)- 57%
• Mark Walker (R-NC)- 41%
• David Rouzer (R-NC)- 40%
• Steve Russell (R-OK)- 41%
• Ryan Costello (R-PA)- 48%
• John Ratcliffe (R-TX)- 25%
• Will Hurd (R-TX)- 48%
• Brian Babin (R-TX)- 26%
• Mia Love (R-UT)- 30%
• Barbara Comstock (R-VA)- 49%
• Dan Newhouse (R-WA)- 38%
• Alex Mooney (R-WV)- 38%
• Evan Jenkins (R-WV)- 33%
• Glenn Grothman (R-WI)- 46%

On top of these 58, there were 3 winners in November who have already been won in because of special elections to fill vacancies:

• Donald Norcross (D-NJ) replacing Robert Andrews
• Alma Adams (D-NC) replacing Mel Watt
• David Brat (R-VA) replacing Eric Cantor

Let me say a few words about Donald Norcross, who has already started amassing one of the worst voting records possible for a Democrat. His solid blue district has a PVI of D+13 and Obama beat Romney there 66-34%. He's the younger brother of New Jersey's incredibly corrupt Democratic boss, George Norcross and he has been a transactional business shill in the state legislature who should never have been elected to anything. In just the month he has been voting, Norcross already sunk to the very bottom on the Democratic barrel. His ProgressivePunch progressive crucial vote score is just 40%, worse than any Blue Dogs in Congress except Collin Peterson (39.98) and Kyrsten Synema (36.16), the two worst Democrats in Congress according to voting records. The difference between Peterson and Sinema and Norcross is how blue Norcross' district is in comparison to Peterson's red district (R+6) and Sinema's swing district (R+1). Norcross has the lowest voting score of any Democrat in Congress when his votes are adjusted by the district swing-- an astounding, negative 43.33-- indicating he's likely to be the worst Democrat in Congress for a long time to come, probably even worse than new Blue Dogs Brad Ashford and Gwen Graham. His first vote after being sworn in was over the Keystone XL Pipeline. He was one of 31 Democrats to cross the aisle and vote with the Republicans in favor of it. This came as no surprise to the New Jersey environmental community, which has rated him as the worst Democrat in either house of the state legislature on all matters involving environmental safety and clean water.