By Torey Van Oot and Phillip Reese
Sen. Joel Anderson may be angling for "ayes" to become the next Senate GOP leader, but the Alpine Republican is much more likely to vote no than yes himself in the chamber and committee rooms.
Anderson, who is jockeying with Sen. Bob Huff to eventually succeed Senate GOP leader Bob Dutton, has voted no 38.9 percent of the time this session -- a higher percentage of his total votes cast than any other legislator. On average, legislators voted no about 11 percent of the time, though Republicans' votes against majority Democrats' measures generally bump up their no vote tally.
Anderson credits his commitment to voting yes or no on every measure -- as opposed to abstaining from bills that are controversial or that tackle subjects he doesn't have much an opinion on -- for his high no vote count. That means even voting against requests to add coauthors or grant reconsideration when it comes to measures he doesn't support.
"I can't lay off," he told Capitol Alert earlier this year. "I get paid to vote and so if I can't vote yes, I have to vote no."
See the full rank of no votes compiled by The Bee below:
Editor's note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified Linda Halderman and Jeff Gorell as Democrats. Gorell is currently on a leave of absence during a deployment to Afghanistan.
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