Over the past several months, Media Mouse has noticed a general trend coming from the candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. The trend is that the candidates are often sitting out of votes--both controversial and not. When writing about how Michigan's Senators have voted on issues, including the Peru Free Trade Agreement, the confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, and on Iraq we have noticed that the Democratic Party candidates currently in office--Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama are regularly deciding not to vote on legislation coming before the House or Senate.

In some cases, the percentage of times they are registered as "not voting is strikingly high. Joe Biden has not voted 35.8% of the time, Chris Dodd has not voted 34.4% of the time, Barack Obama has not voted 34.1% of the time , Hillary Clinton has not voted 19% of the time, and Representative Dennis Kucinich has not voted 11.8% of the time. For the Senators running for the Democratic Party nomination, this is enough to place them among those who have missed the most votes.

Clearly, this is problematic as reviewing a candidate's voting record is an easy way of seeing where they stand on issues. When a legislator chooses not to vote or misses a vote because they are campaigning, it makes it difficult to find out where they stand on issues. By default, voters must either wade through the candidate's public statements to determine if a reason was given, follow closely any comments in the media, or simply accept what the candidate has said about their position while ignoring their voting record.

In the House and Senate, there are two ways to vote--either for or against a specific piece of legislation. While a legislator can chose not to vote, there are no abstentions and if a legislator chooses not to vote, it does not go on the record as opposing or supporting a specific piece of legislation and the reasons for not voting are not tallied. Consequently, this means that if a legislator is going to support or oppose a piece of legislation, they must make a choice between voting yes or no.

This should be obvious to the candidates running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, as they have all served for several years. Unfortunately, it seems that the Democratic Party candidates are making a deliberate decision not to vote for political reasons. They are either deciding that campaigning is more important or they are attempting to avoid having a recorded position. If they do not have a recorded position, it leaves the option of them being able to say that their position was "misunderstood" or had changed over time. Ultimately, it makes it difficult to know where they stand.

As an example, the vote to confirm Attorney General Mukasey in the Senate is instructive. In response to Mukasey's unwillingness to condemn the interrogation technique known as "water boarding"--a form of torture via simulated drowning--the four Senators running for the Democratic Party all issued statements opposing his nomination. Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Obama all said that they would oppose the nomination, yet they all chose not to vote.

Moreover, it has not just been when failing to oppose issues that they claim to oppose, some of them have also failed to support legislation that they claim to support. On the recent vote on the Peru FTA--on which all of four chose not to vote--Clinton and Obama publicly stated their support for the trade agreement yet failed to vote on it. Similarly, Biden and Dodd both said that they were "opposed" to the agreement yet failed to vote against it.

These are only two of many important issues that the Democratic Party candidates have chosen not to vote. Some others include:

The Water Resources Development Act -- All of the Senators seeking the Party's presidential nomination failed to vote on overriding President George W. Bush's veto of this bill that provides funding for flood control, environmental projects, and other water related projects. Clinton even went so far as to issue a statement hailing the passage of the bill, despite the fact that she did not vote. Dodd issued a similar statement in September.

Support for Injured Service Members Act -- With the exception of Joe Biden, the Senators did not vote on this bill designed to expand family and medical leave for people serving in the Armed Forces.

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 -- All of the Senators chose not to vote on this bill--which included funding for Iraq without a timetable for withdrawal--despite the fact that they have all advocated some form of withdrawal from Iraq.

On numerous judicial nomination votes, the Democratic Party candidates have not voted. This includes votes on Janis Lynn Sammartino, William Lindsay Osteen, and Robert M. Dow, Jr.

Vitter Amdt. No. 3330 - The Democratic Party candidates failed to cast a vote either for or against this amendment that would have prohibited funds being granted to entities providing abortions. The amendment was an appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

This is just a sampling of votes that the candidates have missed, and does not include votes that they have missed individually.