James, I don’t doubt that Red State (or whatever we want to call them) Senators themselves have a view of national security which lines up with their constituents, but the overall pattern is fairly clear. The safe Blue Senators overwhelmingly voted against this despite dire warnings of the consequences of failing to fix the FISA “gap” in surveillance. That works in New York; it doesn’t in Virginia which is why Webb, who himself is a strong national security advocate, voted the way he did. If it were months before the election, instead over a year away, I’m betting Hillary would have voted with Webb.
