Thread: Ted Cruz already missing Senate votes for White House run

Ted Cruz already missing Senate votes for White House run

By TODD J. GILLMAN tgillman@dallasnews.com
Washington Bureau
Published: 25 March 2015 11:17 PM
Updated: 25 March 2015 11:23 PM

WASHINGTON — In his first three days as a declared presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz missed more than a dozen votes in the Senate.

They won’t be the last.

Courting donors, jetting off to New Hampshire and Iowa — it’s a time-consuming business, not entirely compatible with the hearings, meetings, debates and roll calls that fill a typical week for a senator.

“At the end of the day, I’ve got to do both,” Cruz said in an interview Monday, shortly after launching his 2016 White House bid. “Texans entrusted me in 2012 with a humbling responsibility to go to Washington and fight for them, to defend liberty and defend the Constitution. That’s a commitment I made to 27 million Texans. I intend to continue that fight regardless of what happens.”

It’s a juggling act. Miss too much work at the Senate, and activists will raise eyebrows. Spend too much time at the Senate, miss quality time with donors and voters.

It’s hard to see even a prolonged bout of absenteeism alienating Cruz’s ardent supporters. And for those who view him as a hindrance in the Senate — an agitator who engineered the October 2013 government shutdown and a more recent showdown over immigration policy and Homeland Security funding — the shift to campaign mode comes as a relief.

“If you care about governing, it’s progress,” said GOP strategist John Weaver, a key player on Sen. John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential bids. “Maybe he can soften his image by disappearing.”

Four senators are likely to run for president this year. Most senators who run end up falling short, even if they end up with their party’s nominations, as McCain and Barack Obama did in 2008.

Cruz aides say he’ll be in Washington for any especially important votes and will use the platform strategically.

He chairs two subcommittees that could serve as perches to advance his policy agenda and, potentially, his ambitions.

Last week, he convened a hearing of a Judiciary panel that deals with federal courts and agencies to highlight complaints about the legality of the president’s immigration orders. He has used another subcommittee that covers space and science policy to prod NASA to focus more on spaceflight and less on climate change.

“If you overuse it, it’s grandstanding and it’s transparent, and you’ll get dinged for it,” said a senior Cruz adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The votes Cruz missed so far this week were hardly world-changing, including a flurry late Wednesday.

The first was the 89-0 confirmation of a new federal maritime commissioner. He also missed the 98-1 rejection of the president’s budget and lots of party-line votes on budget amendments. On many, he was the only absent senator.

Senators strike different balances.

Bob Dole stepped down as GOP leader in 1995 to run for the White House. He won the nomination. The same year, Texas Sen. Phil Gramm was stumping in Louisiana and Iowa when a farm bill fell short by one vote — his vote — a few days before the Iowa caucuses.
“He paid a tremendous price for that,” Weaver recalled.

For a more junior lawmaker, the possibilities for chalking up wins or getting blame for losses are more limited.

Said Ross Baker, a congressional scholar at Rutgers University: “It’s easier for a low-ranking member who doesn’t have heavy responsibilities.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/polit...-house-run.ece

Cruz needs to understand that the Republicans who may end up voting for him are the ones at home and work following the news coming out of the Congress. This Congress will be watched more carefully by Republicans at least, then any Congress in US History. If you want to get votes from Republicans in 2016, you need to be on the job in the Congress, whether it be the US House of Representatives or the US Senate.

I'll tell you something else, this next President will need to be staying home in DC, be in that White House every day, doing his job. If he needs to meet with foreign dignitaries, then he needs to invite them to the US to meet with him at the White House, and have some nice State Dinners. Everyone it seems wants to come to the United States, so there's no reason for our Presidents to be leaving the US and spending weeks and months and if tallied up over their terms, years on the road touring countries who aren't going to give US anything anyway, because they all want to meet to try to take something from US, so the less of it, the better.

All the Congressional candidates, not just Cruz, need to be in DC doing their jobs, that's what Americans want to see, especially Republicans. We pay good money to fund their salaries, benefits, expenses, staff and so forth, so being out of the office seeking a higher calling is not what we're paying for, and this America today is sick and tired of not getting our money's worth.

What a phony, as I've always believed him to be. Vote-a-rama on many immigration bill today? Is he there? Then talks about what Texans elected him to do, and he's going to do it??? Is it phony or is it stinking? Eliminate one option if you can, I can't! It does ring loudly of dishonesty, doesn't it?

Ted Cruz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz

Wikipedia

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (born December 22, 1970) is the junior United States Senator from Texas. Elected in 2012 as a Republican, he is the first Hispanic or ...