The Latest Legislative Scorecard

Harold A Black

June 1, 2024

One of my favorite things to do is to look at the legislative scorecard from the Institute for Legislative Analysis (https://www.limitedgov.org). And yes I do have a life. The Institute lists all senators and representatives with its Limited Government Index. So a priori one would assume that someone like Rand Paul would be the most conservative senator and Bernie Sanders would be the most liberal. In the House someone like Chip Roy– or Marjorie Taylor Green – would be the most conservative and a member of the Squad like Jasmine Crockett or Jamaal Bowman would be the most liberal. Within parties, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Milt Romney should be the least conservative of the republicans and Joe Manchin should be the least liberal democrat (Manchin has just declared himself an independent). 

Those are my priors. Looking at the scorecard, Mike Lee not Rand Paul is the most conservative senator with a score of 100%. Rand Paul is the second most conservative (98.18%).  Not surprisingly the least conservative republican senators are indeed Mitt Romney (59.49%), Lisa Murkowski (51.79%) and Susan Collins (50.00%). No democrat senator ranks ahead of any of the three “liberal” republicans. Joe Manchin is the least liberal democrat but his score is only 35.19%.Recall that I cautioned all those who were wishing Manchin would change his affiliation to republican? Obviously those who wanted that didn’t have a clue as to his voting record. Manchin only looked like a conservative when compared to any other democrat in the senate. The next least liberal democrat senator is Jon Tesler who only scores 28.57%. Tesler keeps getting elected in Montana despite his record. What about the most liberal senator? Surprise! It is not Bernie Sanders who ranks only number 67 on the Institute’s scale with a 7.14% ranking – tied with Maria Cantwell – meaning that there are 32 democrats more liberal than Bernie. The most liberal is Connecticut’s Chris Murphy at only 1.79%. Compared to Murphy, Bernie is moderate.

On the House side, the most conservative republican is Scott Perry who scores 100%. Scott Perry? Who is Scott Perry? He’s from Pennsylvania. Chip Roy and Bob Good also score 100%. If Bob Good scores 100%, then why did Trump endorse Good’s opponent in the Virginia republican primary? It’s because Good endorsed Ron DeSantis. I wonder if Trump called Good a RINO? Paul Gosar, Josh Brecheen, Andy Biggs and Dan Bishop all score 99+%. Majorie Taylor Green ranks only 28^th(95.87%), behind our Tim Burchett (#23 at 96.77%). Andy Ogles (98.39) is the most conservative Tennessee representative. Not surprisingly Steve Cohen is the least conservative ranking 330 with a rating of 6.09%. The least conservative republican representatives are Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania at 36.51% That’s not far from the least liberal democrat Jared Golden of Maine at 33.33%. The most liberal democrat is indeed a squad member Jasmine (Fake Eyelashes) Crockett at 1.61%.  Jamaal Bowman scores 3.23% tied with Don Beyer (the auto mogul from Virginia) and followed by such luminaries as Cori Bush (2.97%), Joaquan Castor (2.73%), squad member Ayanna Pressley (2.59%), Sylvia Garcia (2.46%), squad members Ilhan Omar (2.40%), Rashida Tlaib (2.38%) and Summer Lee (2.38%), Greg Casar (2.38%), Delia Ramairez (1.67%), Raul Grijalva (1.64%) and Valarie Foushee (1.63%). AOC? She is ranked 398 at 4.07% meaning that there are 34 representatives more liberal than AOC!

What is interesting is that on the senate side Romney, Murkowski and Collins are called moderates while on the democrat side, Manchin, Tesler are called moderates. But their scores are far below those of the republican “moderates”. I guess it is like the Les McCann song “Compared to What?” Romney, Murkowski and Collins are moderates compared to Mike Lee and Ryan Paul. Manchin and Tesler are moderates compared to Chris Murphy and Mazie Hirono.

Again, there is no overlap in either the senate or the house. Is there any wonder there is so much rancor between the political parties. Is there any wonder there is so much discord amongst the rest of us?