Bud has a choice to make

Michael Barone has analyzed 50 in-play House races, and made predictions in each one. Summarizing, he says:

My predictions would produce an almost evenly divided House: 219 Democrats, a net gain of 16, and 216 Republicans. Such a result would raise the question of whether Mississippi Democrat Gene Taylor, who declined to vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker in this Congress, would do so again, and whether another Democrat might do so—which could produce a Republican majority for speaker.

In the time since Mr. Barone published his predictions, Rep. Taylor's communications director has stated that Taylor intends to vote for Nancy Pelosi this time around. According to Hotline:

GOPers -- don't get your hopes up that if the House teeters on the brink of flipping to the Democratic Party, conservative Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS) will switch parties or vote for a Republican as Speaker of the House.

His comm, dir, Courtney Littig, tells the Hotline that Taylor is committed to voting for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

So, the the question I asked yesterday seems to be quite relevant: if the Democrats manage to win control of the House, who will Rep. Bud Cramer (AL-District 5) support for Speaker? Will he vote according to the views and interests of his constituents, or will he fall in line behind the liberals in his party by supporting Nancy Pelosi?

Cramer calls himself a conservative Democrat. Time will tell whether his emphasis is on "conservative" or "Democrat."