• About
  • Contact
  • Email List
  • Take Action
05 Mar 2012
2

How Conservative is the Alabama Congressional Delegation?

by Cliff Sims

National Journal recently released their yearly ratings of Congressman and Senators and ordered them from most conservative to most liberal. To calculate their ratings, National Journal used key votes on economic issues, foreign issues and social issues. They used 97 votes from the Senate and 105 votes from the House to get a decent sample size by which they could gauge each member’s ideological leanings.

You can see below where Alabama’s delegation landed on the list. I’ve also included some other notable names to add some context.

Name (District): Conservative rank in the House (Lower number = More conservative)

Martha Roby (AL-02): 68
Robert Aderholt (AL-04): 87
Michelle Bachmann (MN-06): 101
Jo Bonner(AL-01): 138
Mo Brooks (AL-05): 140
Paul Ryan (Wis-01): 150
Allen West (FL-22): 174
Mike Rogers (AL-03): 177
Spencer Bachus (AL-06): 186
Ron Paul (TX-14): 239
Terri Sewell (AL-07): 266

In the Senate, Senator Jeff Sessions came in at number 11, just below Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Senator Shelby came in at number 26.

Illustrating the polarized state of the legislative branch, not a single Republican ranked below any Democrat on the Senate Conservative ranking. Of course, all of these rankings are subjective and their validity can be debated a million different ways. But if I’ve learned anything from publishing this site, it’s that people love lists. To read more about the National Journal rankings, click here.

Share This
Tim says:
March 6, 2012 at 12:22 pm

For some perspective on how bad National Journal’s rankings are, they have Mitch McConnell rated as more conservative than Rand Paul. Here’s a POLITICO article “Conservative ire over Nat’l Journal rankings”: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/03/ire-over-national-journal-congressional-rankings-116415.html#.T1UZ_Vgg-2E.twitter

Cliff Sims says:
March 6, 2012 at 12:51 pm

Yea, this is definitely not how I would have ranked them… but an interesting read nonetheless. Thanks for reading & commenting. Good link as well.

@YHPolitics Tweets


Search the Hammer

Archived Posts

  • May 2013 (38)
  • April 2013 (46)
  • March 2013 (31)
  • February 2013 (35)
  • January 2013 (28)
  • December 2012 (23)
  • November 2012 (30)
  • October 2012 (35)
  • September 2012 (15)
  • August 2012 (25)
  • July 2012 (37)
  • June 2012 (32)
  • May 2012 (30)
  • April 2012 (40)
  • March 2012 (64)
  • February 2012 (60)
  • January 2012 (55)
  • December 2011 (42)

RSS Hammer Feed

  • Handicapping the Upcoming Congressional Race in AL01
  • Jo Bonner to leave Congress, take job at Univ. of Alabama System
  • Hobby Lobby Continues Fight for Religious Liberty
© Copyright 2013, Yellow Hammer Politics. Site by Knoxly.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!






Your Personal Data Will Be Protected
[close]
Brought to you by
Displet