Rep. Glenn Nye, not walking the party line

When House Democrats voted in late April to support a $3.4 trillion federal budget, freshman U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye bucked his party and voted against it. Too expensive, he said.

When Democrats passed a complex bill that would place caps on greenhouse gas emissions and restructure the nation's energy policies, Nye opposed it. Too costly for typical Americans, he said.

In fact, during his first six months in office, the Norfolk congressman opposed the Democratic majority on one of every four party-line votes, according to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly. Only eight of the 258 Democrats in the House voted with their party less frequently.

Nye also voted less often than most Democrats in support of President Barack Obama's agenda, supporting the president 81 percent of the time.

His votes have raised the eyebrows of some who say they're not sure what he's up to and encouraged others who say he's behaving like the moderate they elected.

Unlike many members of Congress, Nye came in as a blank slate, with no experience as an elected official. A native of Norfolk, he had spent years overseas as a foreign service officer before returning home to run against a two-term incumbent last fall.

Now, with each vote in Congress, he's building a record scrutinized both by supporters and Republican critics who track his every move.

Joe Cook, a local coordinator for MoveOn.org, a group that helped Nye win, said members are disappointed in some of his actions - especially his vote against the bill to limit greenhouse gases.

"We helped him get elected because these issues are important to us and these issues remain important to us," Cook said. "We will continue to privately and publicly hold his feet to the fire."

Former Congressman Owen Pickett earned a reputation as a moderate Democrat during his 14 years in the House. Pickett, whom Nye has turned to for advice, said he believes Nye is trying to do the same.

That won't make everyone happy back home, Pickett said.

"You can't please all the people all the time," he said.

When Nye defeated U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake by just over 13,000 votes, he did it in part by criticizing Drake for consistently voting in support of then-President George W. Bush's policies. Nye said recently that his own voting pattern reflects the makeup of the 2nd District. He describes his constituents - who live in Virginia Beach, the Eastern Shore and parts of Norfolk and Hampton - as political moderates who are less interested in party affiliation than in a Congress member who represents their interests.

He contends that pressure from his party's House leadership doesn't influence him.

"I vote based on my principles and my district," he said. "I have stuck to what I think is right."

Republicans say his votes are calculated to mask his liberal views.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "is giving him a pass," said Gary Byler, chairman of the 2nd District Republican committee. "There's no doubt that if Pelosi needs his vote, she could get it."

Since Nye's first days in Congress, GOP activists have used blogs, targeted e-mails and occasional ads to raise doubts about his intentions and belittle his actions. The National Republican Campaign Committee has regularly attacked Nye and other new Democratic congressmen, in one example calling them "Pelosi's Puppets" for failing to demand an investigation of her statements about what she knew about techniques used by U.S. interrogators.

Nye decided early in his term to join the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 51 self-described "moderate to conservative" House Democrats. The name is a play on an old label, "yellow dog Democrats," referring to someone so loyal he would vote for a yellow dog, as long as it was a Democrat. Coalition members say they've been choked blue by the party's departure from their fiscally conservative views.

Yet one of Nye's first major votes was to support the multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus bill, which increased the federal deficit.

"It was a tough vote," Nye said. "I felt like the economy was going to suffer. We needed to take some action. I felt it was important to provide tax cuts."

Weeks later, he was one of a handful of Democrats who voted against the party's 2010 budget proposal, which included a $1.3 trillion deficit. The budget had too much deficit spending, he said.

"Given the fact that I supported the $787 billion stimulus plan, I thought... we should hold firm on increasing any other spending," he said. "We need to move back towards a balanced budget."

Nye acknowledged that on his regular weekend trips back to Hampton Roads, voters often press him to explain why he supported the stimulus.

"The stimulus is a one-time thing," he said.

When it comes to health care, he vows to oppose any overhaul plan that increases the federal deficit. He has not said how he would vote on the House Democrats' health care plan that was recently introduced. On Friday, Nye and several fellow Democrats visited the White House to urge Obama not to fund health care by raising taxes on small businesses.

Nye is focusing much of his attention on legislation aimed at assisting veterans, active-duty members of the military and small businesses - all key constituencies in his district. He also has worked with other local legislators to block the Navy's efforts to move a Norfolk-based carrier to Florida.

His first success was a measure included in a House-approved bill to establish business centers to assist military veterans with training, access to capital and information about becoming government contractors. The centers would be built in veteran-heavy areas such as Hampton Roads.

Nye and his supporters acknowledge that the Republican attacks aren't likely to stop. Already, several potential candidates have stepped forward to challenge him next year.

Pickett said the attacks should be expected. The best time to unseat a member of Congress is during the first term, he said.

Once the November state elections are over, "our opponents are going to climb all over him," said Ollie Bates, Virginia Beach Democratic Committee chairman.

While Nye was a vigorous campaigner in November and makes regular trips back to Hampton Roads, some supporters and opponents say he's still unknown to many people in the district.

"He could stand some work in terms of getting out in the community and doing some more of that one-on-one with people," said Pickett, adding that among the most frequent comments he hears about Nye is not that people don't like him but that they don't know him very well.

The 34-year-old, whose demeanor is more like an earnest school principal than a fast-talking car salesman, said he spends as much time at gatherings with constituents listening to what people have to say as he does expounding on the issues.

Their comments reinforce what he knows about his district, he said: "My roots are in Norfolk and Virginia Beach."

Norfolk City Council member Randy Wright, who is politically independent, said that to survive, Nye must work hard to create a stronger public perception - or others will do it for him.

"At this juncture in time he's needing an awful lot of people and a lot of them for the first time because he doesn't have a political track record," Wright said. "I think it's a warming-up process."

Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com