Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 June 2009 18:11

By David Montgomery

Published/Last Modified on Thursday, Jun 25, 2009 - 12:07:24 am CDT

Editor’s note: This column was adapted from a post on the Behind Government Lines blog, www.capjournal.com/blog/behind_govt_lines

Political attacks are already beginning for the 2010 election — but not all of these attacks are accurate.

An active South Dakota Republican Party has been blasting out memos criticizing every move Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin takes. Many of these critiques come down to differences of opinion. But in one major critique, the GOP is stretching the facts to make its case.  In numerous press releases, the GOP cites the Washington Post to claim that Herseth Sandlin voted with House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi more than 90 percent of the time.

This fact is close to accurate: the Washington Post’s Votes Database counts party loyalty votes. Pelosi votes the Democratic Party line 100 percent of the time. Herseth Sandlin votes with her party 95.1 percent of the time.

This seems like a high number. But it doesn’t have any context. In fact, the average member of Congress — regardless of party — votes with his or her party leadership more than 90 percent of the time. This is because members of Congress make a lot of small, procedural votes where everyone votes the party line.

So how does Herseth Sandlin’s seemingly high 95.1 percent party loyalty number actually compare to other Democrats?

The way to figure that out is to put all the Democrats in the House of Representatives in order by their party loyalty percentages.

There are 258 Democratic representatives. Herseth Sandlin ranks 215th.

Another way of looking at that: 83 percent of House Democrats are more loyal to their party — and to Pelosi — than Herseth Sandlin is.

Now, for some people, this can still be a political flaw — if voting with the Democratic Party at all is seen as undesirable. But Herseth Sandlin has never denied being a Democrat.

Her claim, being attacked here by the Republican Party, is that she is a “moderate, independent voice” for South Dakota.

The state GOP claims “voting with Nancy Pelosi more than 9 out of every 10 times is not moderate, and it is not independent.”

But the same data Republicans use to make this claim actually suggests Herseth Sandlin is one of the more independent members of the Democratic party.

The Post’s party loyalty numbers don’t directly address Herseth Sandlin’s claims of being a moderate.

But other organizations also rank members of Congress by how they voted.

The National Journal magazine, for instance — which was praised by conservatives for declaring then-Sen. Barack Obama to be the most liberal member of the Senate in 2007 — ranks members of Congress by how they vote on important, controversial bills.

Herseth Sandlin was given a score of 51.5 percent — meaning she was more liberal than 51.5 percent of all members of the House of Representatives, Democrat and Republican alike.

This essentially puts her at the exact center of the House — or pretty much where she says she is when she proclaims herself to be a moderate, Blue Dog Democrat.

Now, this isn’t meant to say that Herseth Sandlin can’t be criticized for being out of touch with South Dakota voters.

It’s just that such attacks will have to focus on particular votes (such as her vote in favor of the stimulus bill often cited by her conservative critics) rather than the aggregate total of all her votes, which is centrist by most objective measures.