Democrats often voted with GOP House leaders

ATLANTA --- The Augusta-area's three Republican members of the Georgia House might be expected to vote mostly with their party's leaders, but it might be surprising how often some of the local Democrats did also.

About a third of all recorded votes were unanimous.

But an analysis of the 255 contested votes in which the leaders of the House voted together, some Democrats often went along.

Reps. Wayne Howard of Augusta and Sistie Hudson of Sparta are two Democrats who voted four out of five times with the Republicans -- more than 80 percent of the votes.

That's higher than some Republicans, such as Rep. Mark Hatfield of Waycross, who stuck with his party just 69 percent of the time.

The most controversial votes, though, tended to follow party lines.

House Majority Leader Jerry Keen told reporters Thursday he was frustrated with Democrats voting in lockstep against numerous proposals to limit property taxes, such as House Resolution 1 which would have capped property tax assessments at 3 percent.

"I had a number of their caucus members tell me that they were told in no uncertain terms there would be consequences if they voted for that measure," he said.

House Minority Whip Carolyn Hugley of Columbus said Democrats did decide to take a joint stand against the tax bills, the overhaul of the transportation governance and doing away with extra pay for teachers with national certification.

But she said there were no threats because the minority party doesn't control anything and has little power to punish.

"It's not as if we can take away someone's committee assignments," she said. "We don't have many sticks."

Among local legislators in the area of absences, Rep. Hardie Davis, D-Gracewood, had the greatest number of missed votes.

That's because he was hospitalized for observation of a heart condition during some of the busiest days with the most votes.

Freshman Rep. Lee Anderson, R-Grovetown, missed only one vote during the whole session, out of 255 contested, recorded votes.