Liberal, conservative, centrist, odd couple

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