

Clinton and Sanders at the debate in January. (REUTERS/Randall Hill)

For all of their comments about having been colleagues in the Senate, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton spent about as little time there together as is possible. Clinton was first elected in 2000, leaving at the beginning of 2009 when she was appointed secretary of state. Sanders won election to the senate in 2007 — right as Clinton started her first bid for the presidency.

During 2007 and 2008, as she was in her first protracted battle for the nomination, Clinton missed nearly a third of the votes the Senate took.

As has been noted elsewhere (including by us), when Sanders and Clinton were both there and were both voting, they generally concurred with one another. According to data from Govtrack, the two voted the same way on legislation about 93 percent of the time.

The two disagreed 31 times, on votes ranging from the final approval of bills to motions to cut off filibuster. They’re indicated on the chart below, and listed at the bottom of this article.

(Split votes by a party are those in which neither Yea nor Nay got at least 60 percent of the vote.)

Among the most significant disagreements was on the “Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007” — the legislative vehicle for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP. Sanders was one of 25 senators to oppose the measure, bucking the majority of both the Democratic and Republican caucuses.

Of course, Sanders wasn’t a Democrat until he decided to run for president. It’s not a surprise, then, that Sanders went against the party majority three times as often as did Clinton.

“I have said many times, you know, sometimes in these campaigns, things get a little bit out of hand,” Sanders said during the most recent debate. “I happen to respect the secretary very much, I hope it’s mutual. And on our worst days, I think it is fair to say we are 100 times better than any Republican candidate.”

Not a shocking statement. After all, the two agree more than 90 percent of the time.

The times the two disagreed: