It's Part III of the latest lifetime vote ratings from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the American Conservative Union (ACU). Today, it's members of the House on the liberal end of the spectrum. Tomorrow, House moderates, then House conservatives on Friday.
Raw data:
ADA
ACU
In case you missed the first two Parts of the ratings, here's my explanation for using the ADA & ACU:
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Why the ADA & ACU? They have among the longest history of doing such vote ratings, the ADA having released ratings back to 1948, the ACU since 1971. This allows for historical comparison with Representatives & Senators of the past 50 years using fairly similar criteria. Plus, the groups aren't particularly focused on one issue or another. Rather, one advocates liberal causes, the other, conservative causes. By averaging the two, I think you reach something close to a good idea where a member of Congress stands. And yes, I have pondered adding other ratings, such as the National Journal's and Congressional Quarterly's rankings. I leave them out because (1) there's not as much history, (2) especially in the National Journal's case, I'm not hot on their methodology (evenly spacing out all members instead of showing exactly how liberal or conservative a member is) and (3) it takes long enough averaging the numbers of 535 Representatives & Senators from 2 organizations, much less adding a 3rd or 4th.
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Now, the House. These are the ratings through the last session of the House, in 2006. Therefore, I've included Representatives who retired or were voted out of office. Retired Representatives and those who ran for another office are marked with a *, Representatives who lost re-election marked with a **.
In case you didn't see them, here are Parts I & II from past two days:
Part I: '08 Presidential Contenders
Part II: The Senate
Here's the list of House liberals:
Gwen Moore (D-WI) 99
Hilda Solis (D-CA) 98.8
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) 98.5
Linda Sanchez (D-CA) 98.5
John Tierney (D-MA) 97.8
James McGovern (D-MA) 97.8
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz(D-FL) 97.8
Doris Matsui (D-CA) 97.8
Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) 97.7
Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) 97.6
Jerry Nadler (D-NY) 97.6
Betty McCollum (D-MN) 97.3
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) 97.2
John Olver (D-MA) 97.2
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) 97.1
Barney Frank (D-MA) 97.1
*Lane Evans (D-IL) 97.1
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) 96.7
*Major Owens (D-NY) 96.7
Danny Davis (D-IL) 96.4
Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) 96.3
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 96.3
Grace Napolitano (D-CA) 96.2
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) 96.2
Elijah Cummings (D-MD) 96.0
Chaka Fattah (D-PA) 96.0
Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI) 95.9
*Martin Sabo (D-MN) 95.9
John Lewis (D-GA) 95.8
Jose Serrano (D-NY) 95.7
*Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 95.7
Tom Udall (D-NM) 95.7
Tom Allen (D-ME) 95.7
Pete Stark (D-CA) 95.7
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) 95.6
Ed Pastor (D-AZ) 95.6
Michael Honda (D-CA) 95.6
Sam Farr (D-CA) 95.6
Sander Levin (D-MI) 95.5
Michael Capuano (D-MA) 95.2
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) 95.1
George Miller (D-CA) 95.0
Julia Carson (D-IN) 95.0
Ed Markey (D-MA) 94.9
Henry Waxman (D-CA) 94.83
Barbara Lee (D-CA) 94.8
Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) 94.8
Maxine Waters (D-CA) 94.7
William Delahunt (D-MA) 94.7
Donald Payne (D-NJ) 94.7
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) 94.7
Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) 94.7
John Larson (D-CT) 94.6
Anthony Weiner (D-NY) 94.6
Bob Filner (D-CA) 94.5
Jim McDermott (D-WA) 94.5
Nita Lowey (D-NY) 94.4
Bobby Rush (D-IL) 94.4
Tom Lantos (D-CA) 94.3
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) 94.3
Xavier Becerra (D-CA) 94.3
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) 94.1
Diana DeGette (D-CO) 94.0
Tim Bishop (D-NY) 93.8
Charlie Rangel (D-NY) 93.7
Robert Wexler (D-FL) 93.7
**Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) 93.6
Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) 93.5
Louise Slaughter (D-NY) 93.5
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) 93.4
Eliot Engel (D-NY) 93.3
Robert Brady (D-PA) 93.3
Russ Carnahan (D-MO) 93.3
Brad Sherman (D-CA) 93.0
Rush Holt (D-NJ) 92.9
Gary Ackerman (D-NY) 92.8
Brad Miller (D-NC) 92.8
Melvin Watt (D-NC) 92.7
Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) 92.6
Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) 92.4
John Conyers (D-MI) 92.5
Bobby Scott (D-VA) 92.2
Jay Inslee (D-WA) 92.0
Howard Berman (D-CA) 92.0
Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) 91.8
Susan Davis (D-CA) 91.8
*Sherrod Brown (D-OH) 91.8
Mark Udall (D-CO) 91.7
Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) 91.6
Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) 91.4
Albert Wynn (D-MD) 91.4
*Ben Cardin (D-MD) 91.4
G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) 91.2
Corrine Brown (D-FL) 91.1
Kendrick Meek (D-FL) 91.0
Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) 90.9
Steve Rothman (D-NJ) 90.9
Marty Meehan (D-MA) 90.9
Edolphus Towns (D-NY) 90.8
Alcee Hastings (D-FL) 90.6
David Wu (D-OR) 90.5
Richard Neal (D-MA) 90.4
Anna Eshoo (D-CA) 90.2
Lois Capps (D-CA) 90.2
Adam Schiff (D-CA) 90.0
Gregory Meeks (D-NY) 89.9
Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) 89.7
Diane Watson (D-CA) 89.6
William Lacy Clay (D-MO) 89.6
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) 89.6
Joseph Crowley (D-NY) 89.2
Bennie Thompson (D-MS) 89.0
David Obey (D-WI) 88.9
Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) 88.8
James Clyburn (D-SC) 88.7
Steny Hoyer (D-MD) 88.6
Al Green (D-TX) 88.5
Peter DeFazio (D-OR) 88.4
Darlene Hooley (D-OR) 88.4
Mike Thompson (D-CA) 88.1
Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) 88.0
David Price (D-NC) 87.6
James Oberstar (D-MN) 87.6
Brian Baird (D-WA) 87.3
Dale Kildee (D-MI) 87.3
Frank Pallone (D-NJ) 86.9
Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) 86.6
Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) 86.6
Brian Higgins (D-NY) 86
Shelley Berkley (D-NV) 85.6
Steve Israel (D-NY) 85.3
Michael Michaud (D-ME) 85.1
Ron Kind (D-WI) 85.0
Peter Visclosky (D-IN) 85.0
Rick Larsen (D-WA) 84.5
Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) 84.5
Joe Baca (D-CA) 84.3
Vic Snyder (D-AR) 84.2
Norman Dicks (D-WA) 84.2
Stephen Lynch (D-MA) 83.8
*Ted Strickland (D-OH) 83.6
James Langevin (D-RI) 83.6
John Dingell (D-MI) 83.5
Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) 82.6
William Jefferson (D-LA) 82.4
Dennis Moore (D-KS) 82.3
*Jim Davis (D-FL) 82.3
*Ed Case (D-HI) 82.3
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) 81.8
Tim Ryan (D-OH) 81.5
James Moran (D-VA) 81.3
Adam Smith (D-WA) 80.9
Michael McNulty (D-NY) 80.4
Also, here are the lifetime ratings of former Representatives that were elected back into office in 2006:
Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX) 89.3
Nick Lampson (D-TX) 80.4
As always, just another perspective on the ideological balance of Congress. Any questions, I'll try to answer them.