It’s the 99th day of Sen. Bob Casey Jr.‘s senatorial career and he rushes through the long hallways of his office building toward the Capitol. The deadline for a vote is minutes away and the freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania doesn’t want to break his perfect voting record.

As time winds down and he hops on the trolley that connects his office building with the Capitol, he recalls a moment weeks earlier when he sat in a hearing and realized he was about to miss a vote. Panic struck. He narrowly made it.

Casey, in his first three months in office, is that type of freshman: One with a perfect attendance record. One who knows the history of the chamber and the protocol to follow. And perhaps most significant to some, one who has so far brought few surprises to his role as a senator.

From his demands for accountability in Iraq to his opposition to federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, Casey has walked largely in lockstep with the promises he made during his run for office last year.