Many of you have heard people talk about someone's ACU score (especially for the users/lurkers on rrh) which is a barometer of someone's conservatism. But what about measuring someone's liberalism? There is a counterpart to ACU which is called ADA which stands for Americans For Democratic Action and has actually been around a lot longer then the ACU has. Also be sure to read my comments below the ratings
Before I show you these ratings, there are some disclaimers:
- These take in one's current tenure or stint. Senators' house years are left out (which explains Bill Nelson's higher ratings) and those with inconsecutive terms are also left out (which also explains David Price's high rating)
- Early on, the lifetime score may not be tell-all as it usually takes about a dozen years for it to average out.
- every member of congress is rated but I decided to do only democrats because it would be a waste of time to be recording mostly zeroes and fives.
House (in bold is the median ideological member)
1 Cohen 100
2 Heinrich 100
3 Lujan 100
4 Pingree 100
5 Tonko 100
6 Chu 100
7 Garamendi 100
8 Grijalva 98.8
9 Ellison 98.8
10 Hirono 98.8
11 Sarbanes 98.8
12 Sutton 98.8
13 Yarmuth 98.8
14 McGovern 98.6
15 Tierney 98.6
16 Frank 98.5
17 J Jackson 98.3
18 Matsui 98.3
19 Moore 98.3
20 Richardson 98.3
21 Nadler 98.1
22 Li Sanchez 98.1
23 McCollum 98.0
24 Schakowsky 97.9
25 Baldwin 97.5
26 Roybal 97.5
27 A Green 97.5
28 Murphy 97.5
29 Edwards 97.5
30 Fudge 97.5
31 Hinchey 97.2
32 Larson 97.1
33 Olver 97.0
34 B Miller 96.9
35 Van Hollen 96.9
36 Velazquez 96.9
37 Cummings 96.8
38 Woolsey 96.7
39 Napolitano 96.7
40 Tsongas 96.7
41 Castor 96.3
42 Johnson 96.3
43 Honda 96.0
44 Pelosi 95.9
45 Filner 95.8
46 DeLauro 95.8
47 Cleaver 95.8
48 Wasserman 95.8
49 Watt 95.6
50 Farr 95.4
51 Capuano 95.4
52 S Jackson 95.3
53 Scott 95.3
54 G Miller 95.1
55 Markey 95.1
56 Price 95.0
57 Carnahan 95.0
58 Courtney 95.0
59 Perlmutter 95.0
60 Quigley 95.0
61 Serrano 94.9
62 Becerra 94.4
63 Lowey 94.3
64 Maloney 94.2
65 Holt 94.2
66 Lee 94.2
67 Lofgren 94.1
68 Fattah 94.1
69 Engel 93.9
70 Gonzalez 93.8
71 Lewis 93.8
72 Braley 93.8
73 Loebsack 93.8
74 Sires 93.8
75 Walz 93.8
76 D Davis 93.6
77 Slaughter 93.5
78 S Davis 93.5
79 Eshoo 93.3
80 Crowley 93.3
81 Rothman 93.2
82 Sherman 93.2
83 Blumenauer 93.2
84 Gutierrez 93.1
85 Capps 93.1
86 T Bishop 93.1
87 Clay 93.0
88 Pastor 92.9
89 Waxman 92.9
90 Brown 92.8
91 Waters 92.8
92 Brady 92.7 0
93 Clarke 92.5
94 Welch 92.5
95 Himes 92.5
96 Peters 92.5
97 Polis 92.5
98 Stark 92.4
99 Levin 92.4
100 Doggett 92.2
101 DeGette 92.1
102 McDermott 92.0
103 Schiff 92.0
104 Rangel 91.9
105 DeFazio 91.8
106 M Thompson 91.3
107 McNerney 91.3
108 Berman 91.2
109 B Thompson 91.1
110 Higgins 90.8
111 Schwartz 90.8
112 Bernice 90.6
113 Ackerman 90.5
114 Larsen 90.5
115 Meeks 90.0
116 Pascrell 90.0
117 Baca 90.0
118 Israel 90
119 Lynch 90
120 Michaud 90
121 Ryan 90
122 Connolly 90
123 Neal 89.9
124 Clyburn 89.7
125 Lo Sanchez 89.6
126 Pallone 89.6
127 Rush 89.4
128 Towns 89.1
129 Kildee 88.8
130 Ruppersberger 88.8
131 Conyers 88.6
132 Carson 88.3
133 Langevin 88.0
134 Berkley 87.9
135 Hastings 87.8
136 Kucinich 87.5
137 Kind 87.1
138 McCarthy 86.8
139 Hoyer 86.0
140 Visclosky 85.8
141 D Scott 85.6
142 G Green 85.0
143 Butterfield 85.0
144 Smith 83.9
145 Speier 83.3
146 Hinojosa 82.9
147 Schrader 82.5
148 Doyle 81.9
149 Kaptur 81.3
150 Andrews 81.0
151 Moran 81.0
152 Lipinski 80.8
153 Reyes 80
154 Deutch 80
155 Costa 79.2
156 Dingell 78.8
157 Altmire 77.5
158 Boswell 77.1
159 Chandler 77.1
160 Dicks 76.8
161 Cooper 75.6
162 Rahall 74.8
163 S Bishop 73.9
164 Cuellar 72.5
165 Kissell 72.5
166 Costello 72.1
167 Donnelly 71.3
168 Owens 70
169 Barrow 67.5
170 Shuler 67.5
171 Ross 66
172 Matheson 65.5
173 Holden 65
174 McIntyre 57.9
175 Peterson 57.0
176 Critz 45
177 Boren 44.2
Senate
1 Merkley 100
2 Reed 97.5
3 Klobuchar 97.5
4 T Udall 97.5
5 Stabenow 97.0
6 Lautenberg 96.9
7 Durbin 96.8
8 Brown 96.3
9 Schumer 95.8
10 Cardin 95.0
11 Gillibrand 95.0
12 Shaheen 95.0
13 Boxer 94.7
14 Wyden 94.7
15 Harkin 94.6
16 Cantwell 93.5
17 Mikulski 93.3
18 Menendez 93.0
19 Levin 93.0
20 Casey 92.5
21 Whitehouse 92.5
22 Begich 92.5
23 M Udall 92.5
24 Akaka 92.1
25 Murray 91.9
26 Kohl 91.3
27 Leahy 91.3
28 Webb 91.3
29 Bennett 90.0
30 Hagan 90.0
31 Franken 90.0
32 Kerry 89.8
33 Feinstein 89.4
34 McCaskill 88.8
35 Tester 88.8
36 Warner 87.5
37 Carper 87.0
38 Conrad 85.6
39 Rockefeller 85.1
40 Bill Nelson 84.0
41 Bingaman 83.8
42 Johnson 83.2
43 Reid 80.5
44 Baucus 78.9
45 Landrieu 78.9
46 Pryor 78.8
47 Inouye 75.3
48 Ben Nelson 59.0
So I found this list to be interesting. For the most part, I found this list to be spot on when describing how I had thought of someone. The only exceptions would be John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich who I thought were super hardcore leftists but are actually to the right of the median house democrat. I guess they are similar to Ron Paul in the sense that they are idiosyncratic and don't fit in well to any interest group rating.
I hope that this is a list when one can refer to defending an incumbent who is considered a DINO. There is little to no overlap. I don't even think Olympia Snowe has a higher lifetime ADA score than Nelson and there's only maybe two or three republicans at the most who have a higher lifetime ADA score than Boren (the most conservative democrat).