Foster really does vote bipartisan

I really hate quoting Ronald Reagan, but, "Well, there you go again." The Saturday Soapbox editor has once again attempted to trash Congressman Bill Foster's voting record, citing the washingtonpost.com's Votes Database.

On Sept. 27, in the Soapbox piece called "A new kind of independence, we guess" the editor took the derision from the headline into the copy questioning Foster's new ad claiming a bipartisan record, "which is interesting since 94.8 percent of his votes since being elected to Congress last winter have been with the Democrats."

While it is true that Foster has voted with the majority Democrats 95 percent of the time, this is only part of the story. According to the washingtonpost.com Votes Database, Foster has cast 506 votes since March 11. Of those votes, 255 were cast with the Democrats against the majority of the Republicans (50 percent), 228 votes were cast in agreement with the majority of both parties (45 percent), and 23 votes were cast against the majority of the Democrats (5 percent).

Let's review. Foster has cast 50 percent of his votes against the majority of Republicans and 50 percent of his votes with the majority of Republicans. How, exactly, is this not bipartisan?

Bill Foster is working for all of us in the district in a bipartisan way, which is much more that we could expect from his extreme right-wing opponent.

Jim Binder

Elgin