So after approving cloture by a 77-19 margin, the Senate vote to approve the “Cromnibus” was a relatively close 56-40, though breezy by comparison with the House vote (219-206).
Since this happened over the weekend, there was not a lot of attention paid to who voted for and against what and when, other than leading voices in the debate like Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren.
But looking at breakdowns in the two big votes at Roll Call provides some interesting twists and turns.
All three Republicans talking about running for president (Cruz, Paula and Rubio) voted against cloture and against the bill. So, too, did the two Senate Democrats (Sanders and Warren) “mentioned” most prominently as potential challengers to Hillary Clinton in 2016. And so did two Democrats (Manchin and McCaskill) who may have been appealing as much as (or more to) conservative than to progressive constituents in opposing the bill.
One Democrat occasionally mentioned as a future presidential candidate and even more often criticized for excessive coziness with Wall Street, Cory Booker, voted against the bill (but not against cloture).
Very interesting.
