The Critical 22 Senators

If we are to get any viable jobs and unemployment legislation done there are 22 Senators who need to be "convinced." Which Senators?

We have the 12 Democrats who voted for the Recovery Act in 2009, but turned off the spigot and voted against additional Econ 101 deficit spending this past June:

1. Evan Bayh (IN)
2. Mark Begich (AK)
3. Russ Feingold (WI)
4. Herb Kohl (WI)
5. Mary Landrieu (LA)
6. Joe Lieberman (CT)
7. Claire McCaskill (MO)
8. Robert Menendez (NJ)
9. Ben Nelson (NE)
10. Bill Nelson (FL)
11. Mark Pryor (AR)
12. Jim Webb (VA)

We would also need the votes of the two Democrats who were not present for that June vote:

1. Carte Goodwin (WV)
2. Blanche Lincoln (AR)

But we would still need some Republicans. Who could possibly be open to reassessing their views about how to spark job creation? There are five Republican Senators who will be leaving the Senate -- not counting retiring Sen. Jim "Tough S--t" Bunning -- and will be free of conservative movement pressures:

1. Bob Bennett (UT)
2. Kit Bond (MO)
3. Judd Gregg (NH)
4. George LeMieux (FL)
5. George Voinovich (OH)

Plus, there are the three northeast Republicans, who have least voted for some of the unemployment insurance extensions:

1. Scott Brown (MA)
2. Susan Collins (ME)
3. Olympia Snowe (ME)

We at NoJobSurvivor wil be sending our open letter and petition a;omg with selected unemployed stories to each of these Senators. We encourage all nojobsurvivors to contact the senators in the list abpve from yoru state and express your thoughs.

Many thanks to Bill Sher for compiling the list.

News and Comment - Questions and Commentary