2007 ACU Ratings
Written by Sam on May 26th, 2008Finally! I’ve been waiting for these. The annual ratings of the American Conservative Union are out for 2007. Who stood by principle? Who didn’t? Who may as well just become a Democrat? All that and more will be covered. Read on.
Starting with the Senate, there are five Republican Senators who scored a perfect 100 for 2007. I doubt any of these names will surprise you:
- John Barrasso (R-WY)
- Tom Coburn (R-OK)
- Jim DeMint (R-SC)
- James Inhofe (R-OK)
- Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
The lowest scoring Republican should also be of no surprise. That is Maine Senator Olympia Snowe who scored a 28. She actually scored lower than two Democrats. The highest scoring Democrat has changed this year. In years past it has always been Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) but he was beaten this year by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) who scored a 40. John McCain got an 80 for last year. And these so called moderate Democrats have turned out to be not so moderate. Bob Casey (D-PA) showed us how conservative he was with a rating of 8. John Tester (D-MT) and Jim Webb (D-VA) both scored a 16. Evan Bayh (D-IN) got a 12. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) also got an 8.
Presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee Barack Obama (D-IL) scored a 7 and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) scored a big fat ZERO.
In the House there were lots of hundreds! I guess being in the minority makes principle a priority again.
- Trent Franks (R-AZ-02)
- John Shadegg (R-AZ-03)
- Jeff Flake (R-AZ-06)
- John Doolittle (R-CA-04)
- George Radanovich (R-CA-19)
- Devin Nunes (R-CA-21)
- Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-22)
- Ed Royce (R-CA-40)
- Gary Miller (R-CA-42)
- Duncan Hunter (R-CA-52)
- Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO-04)
- Doug Lamborn (R-CO-05)
- Tom Tancredo (R-CO-06)
- John Mica (R-FL-07)
- LynnWestmoreland (R-GA-03)
- Tom Price (R-GA-06)
- John Linder (R-GA-07)
- Nathan Deal (R-GA-09)
- Paul Broun (R-GA-10)
- Phil Gingrey (R-GA-11)
- Bill Sali (R-ID-01)
- Dennis Hastert (R-IL-14)
- Donald Manzullo (R-IL-16)
- Steve King (R-IA-05)
- Richard Baker (R-LA-06)
- Charles Boustany (R-LA-07)
- Tim Walberg (R-MI-07)
- Mike Rogers (R-MI-08)
- John Kline (R-MN-02)
- Michelle Bachmann (R-MN-06)
- Todd Akin (R-MO-02)
- ScottGarrett (R-NJ-05)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
- Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
- Steve Chabot (R-OH-01)
- Jim Jordan (R-OH-04)
- Robert Latta (R-OH-05)
- John Boehner (R-OH-08)
- John Sullivan (R-OK-01)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK-03)
- Tom Cole (R-OK-04)
- Mary Fallin (R-OK-05)
- Joe Pitts (R-PA-16)
- Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
- David Davis (R-TN-01)
- Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07)
- Louis Gohmert (R-TX-01)
- Sam Johnson (R-TX-03)
- Jeb Hensarling (R-TX-05)
- John Culberson (R-TX-07)
- Kevin Brady (R-TX-08)
- Mac Thornberry (R-TX-13)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX-19)
- Michael Burgess (R-TX-26)
- John Carter (R-TX-31)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT-01)
- Robert Wittman (R-VA-01)
- Thelma Drake (R-VA-01)
- Eric Cantor (R-VA-07)
- Doc Hastings (R-WA-04)
- Cathy McMorris (R-WA-05)
- Barbara Cubin (R-WY-AL)
The lowest scoring RINOs were Mike Castle (R-DE-AL) and Chris Shays (R-CT-04) both with a score of 20. The highest scoring Democrat was Gene Taylor (D-MS-04) with a score of 72. I also took interest in some of these supposed “conservative” Democrats that picked up many Republican seats in 2006. Heath Shuler (D-NC-11) got a 44. Nick Lampson (D-TX-22) scored a 20. Tim Mahoney (D-FL-16) scored a 16. Nancy Boyda (D-KS-02) got a 28. Joe Donnelly (IN-02) got a 44.
26
PM
Bob Casey can barely read Sam, go easy on the guy.
26
PM
The ACU ratings for 2007 are based on only twenty-five votes. And McCain missed the majority of those votes–to be precise, he missed fifteen of the twenty-five. So McCain’s ACU rating of 80 percent conservative is based on ten measly votes in the entire year of 2007. (They don’t penalize you for missing a vote.)
Now go look at the issues where McCain didn’t vote and tell me if you think his rating would be as high as 80 percent if he had voted.
That’s the problem with the ACU ratings. They’re very misleading, in major part because (i) they don’t penalize you for missing a vote, and (ii) they leave out lots of important issues. Jon Kyl got a perfect 100 even after he supported Juan McCain’s amnesty bill. And McCain’s lifetime ACU rating doesn’t reflect the fact that he voted to confirm both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer (Clinton’s nominees) to the Supreme Court, because ACU simply ignored those nominations when deciding what issues the senators should be rated on. Which is stupid, because the Supreme Court is *really* important, a lot more important than most of the issues that ACU chose as the basis for its ratings.
So let’s not put too much stock in these ratings.
26
PM
Good point, Alan