A Capitol Hill magazine in Washington has ranked Missouri’s congressional delegation on a liberal-conservative scale and finds Missouri has the 15th most centrist delegation in the House, and the Senate’s eighth-rated odd couple.
The magazine has studied roll-call votes taken in 2008 on economic, social, and foreign-policy issues, then rated members on a liberal-conservative basis for each topic. Since the tabulation is for 2008, it includes the rating for northeast Missouri Congressman Kenny Hulshof who gave up his seat to run for Governor. Blaine Luetkemeyer has that seat now.
The National Journal Magazine says the most liberal member of the House from Missouri is Kansas City’s Emanuel Cleaver, who’s 27th most liberal—which means he ranks 401st out of 428 on the conservative scale.
The most conservative House member from Missouri is Todd Akin from St. Charles. He’s the fifth most conservative…and ranks 423rd on the liberal scale.
Our most middle of the road member of Congress is southeast Missouri Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson who is the 243rd most liberal member of he House and the 183rd most conservative member.
Senator McCaskill is pretty close to middle of the road in the Senate–46th most liberal, 52nd most conservative. Senator Bond is the 13th most conservative senator, 84th most liberal.
Here’s a link to the National Journal rankings:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/2008voteratings
And here’s the overall scoring breakout. The National Journal gives rankings for each category in its article.
1. Clay 62 liberal 365 conservative\
2. Akin 423 liberal 5 conservative
3. Carnahan 116 liberal 310 conservative
4. Skelton 168 liberal 259 conservative
5. Cleaver 27 liberal 401 conservative
6. Graves 294 liberal 132 conservative
7. Blunt 408 liberal 20 conservative
8. Emerson 243 liberal 183 conservative
9. Hulshof 299 liberal 128 conservative
Missouri is the 15th most centrist congressional delegation.
Senate
McCaskill 46 liberal 52 conservative
Bond 84 liberal 13 conservative
Bond and McCaskill rank as the 8th oddest couple in the senate