Allowed to Break Ranks This Year, Some in GOP Vote Like Democrats

When his party controlled Congress, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) was a mannered backbencher, seemingly in no rush to fill the shoes of one of his predecessors in a suburban Atlanta district, the firebrand Newt Gingrich.

But in the minority, the bookish physician has transformed himself into a Republican guerrilla warrior, a near-constant presence on the House floor, gumming up the works with parliamentary objections, verbal volleys and partisan maneuvering.

On the flip side, Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) built his reputation as an uncompromising social conservative over 12 years of GOP rule. But since Democrats took control in November, he has been more with them than against, voting with the majority more often than any other Republican.

The GOP is not about to concede long-term minority status, but for Smith, Price and many others, Democratic control has offered an unexpected sort of freedom, an avenue for junior conservatives to build up their profiles and for endangered swing-state lawmakers to dust off their independent credentials. Republican leaders, stung by their defeats in November, have been willing to let members go their own way on politically sensitive votes. And they have encouraged a new generation of conservatives to emerge as the face of partisan combat.

"As a junior member, there is a certain amount of liberation in the minority. You have a greater freedom of action, not just in private but in public," said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), another floor warrior. "When you are in the majority, you have a line to toe, and that can be a heavy burden. It's more like an anchor than a line."

For many Republicans, that line seems to have all but disappeared. It is not surprising that moderate Republicans, such as Reps. Christopher Shays (Conn.) and Michael N. Castle (Del.), have found themselves voting consistently with Democrats. But Shays and Castle come in fourth and fifth on the list of GOP House members racking up Democratic voting records. Smith has voted with the Democratic leadership position on 65 percent of the ballots taken since Democrats took control. Reps. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) and Frank A. LoBiondo (R-N.J.) tie for second, at 63 percent.

Over their careers, none of those three developed a reputation as a GOP renegade. While Republicans controlled the House, Smith and LoBiondo stuck with their leaders' positions on 80 percent of the House votes and , while Jones posted an 88 percent "party unity" score, according to the vote studies of Congressional Quarterly.

Voting records do illuminate the kind of control Republican leaders exerted on their members during 12 years of control. From 1981 to 1993, when Democrats were in power, Smith was with his leaders only half the time.

Smith points to the bills on the floor, not to any change in leadership styles. When Republicans controlled Congress, housing-aid bills like the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act and labor-backed measures like those recently aimed at raising the minimum wage, permitting unions to gain recognition through signature drives rather than secret elections and allowing transportation-security workers to unionize, never reached a vote, he noted.

The Democrats "front-loaded a number of issues that I and many others had hoped to see resolved long ago," Smith said. "We just had a lot of low-hanging fruit."

But others acknowledged a new willingness of GOP leaders to let them go their own way. Even the leaders themselves have at times splintered. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) bucked the White House and House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) on recent votes to force the administration to comply more quickly with information requests under the Freedom of Information Act and to allow for the faster declassification of presidential records.

"With Republicans in control, especially when Tom DeLay was around, there was a lot of pressure," Castle recalled, referring to the former House majority leader. "This year, there's a lot less pressure. The sense is, we didn't do well in the election. Maybe we ought to let independent members vote their conscience."