I never had Sanford Bishop in my counts until his name showed up on the Stupak amendment yesterday. But apparently, he decided to vote for the bill late last night, which changes the calculation a bit, in favor of Pelosi and the Democrats.

“Unfortunately I think that my constituents are split right down the middle, so in a sense I’m dammed if I do, damned if I don’t,” Bishop said in an interview.

“If I’m going to be dammed, I want to be damned on the side of the angels, on the side of what I think will be an obligation as a Christian to take care of the least of (us) and to make sure people are treated fairly,” he said.

Bishop’s conversion is pretty momentous. It means that the leadership needs only to flip 1, or maybe 2 (depending on Chris Carney) more Democrats, along with running the table on the undecideds, to get to 216.

The new whip count would be 203 Yes, 206 No, 12 undecided, 10 Stupak bloc.

UPDATE: Melissa Bean will vote yes, as well. So will Baron Hill, but I already counted him as a Yes based on other statements. So it’s 204-206, 11 undecided, 10 Stupak bloc.


 Voted Retiring Stupak PVI No Stupak Unknown Leaning Yes Yes
Aye Nay
Definite No (28):
1 Adler, John X R+1 1
2 Barrow, John X D+2 1
3 Boren, Dan X R+14 1
4 Boucher, Rick X R+11 1
5 Bright, Bobby X R+16 1
6 Chandler, Ben X R+9 1
7 Childers, Travis X R+14 1
8 Davis, Artur X D+18 1
9 Davis, Lincoln X R+14 1
10 Edwards, Chet X R+20 1
11 Herseth-Sandlin, Stephanie X R+9 1
12 Holden, Tim X R+6 1
13 Kissell, Larry X R+2 1
14 Kratovil, Frank X R+13 1
15 Marshall, Jim X R+10 1
16 McIntyre, Mike X R+3 1
17 McMahon, Michael X R+4 1
18 Melancon, Charlie X R R+12 1
19 Minnick, Walt X R+18 1
20 Peterson, Collin X R+6 1
21 Ross, Mike X R+7 1
22 Shuler, Heath X R+6 1
23 Skelton, Ike X R+14 1
24 Taylor, Gene X R+20 1
25 Arcuri, Mike X R+1 1
26 Lynch, Stephen X D+8 1
27 Teague, Harry X R+6 1
28 Altmire, Jason X R+6 1
Potential No-Yes Flips (4):
1 Baird, Brian X R D+0 1
2 Matheson, Jim X R+15 1
3 Nye, Glenn X R+6 1
4 Tanner, John X R R+6 1
Potential Yes-No Flips (7):
1 Foster, Bill X R+1 1
2 Kanjorski, Paul X D+4 1
3 Michaud, Mike X D+5 1
4 Ortiz, Solomon X R+2 1
5 Carney, Chris X R+8 1
6 Pomeroy, Earl X R+10 1
7 Space, Zack X R+7 1
Stupak Block (10):
1 Costello, Jerry X S D+3 1
2 Donnelly, Joe X S R+4 1
3 Driehaus, Steve X S D+1 1
4 Lipinski, Dan X S D+11 1
5 Stupak, Bart X S R+3 1
6 Berry, Marion X S R+8 1
7 Dahlkemper, Kathy X S R+3 1
8 Mollohan, Alan X S R+9 1
9 Kaptur, Marcy X S D+10 1
10 Rahall, Nick X S R+6 1
Committed Votes
Democratic 202
Republican 177
TOTAL 206 10 11 0 204