How Interest Groups Rate the Senators

Many interest groups rate senators on how they vote. Well-known groups that issue such ratings include Americans for Democratic Action (a progressive group) and the American Conservative Union (a conservative group). In the table below, we give the ratings of eight such groups and the mean value for each senator. However, the ratings are not completely independent. Usually senators who get a good rating from the ADA get a bad rating from the ACU and vice versa. If we used four progressive groups and four conservative groups, every senator would probably get a score of 50%--not very interesting. To avoid this problem, we have only used (relatively) progressive groups. If you are a progressive, a senator with a high score is a good senator (supports everything progressive). If you are a conservative, a senator with a low score is a good senator (opposes everything progressive). In this way the differences between the senators stand out clearly. The table below is sorted on mean rating. Additional ratings from other interest groups can be found at www.vote-smart.org.

The eight groups used in this study are:

ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union
ADA - Americans for Democratic Action
CDF - Children's Defense Fund
LCV - League of Conservation Voters
NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NARAL - National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League
PTA - National Parent-Teacher Association
SEIU - Service Employees International Union

The data is available for download in Excel and .csv formats so you can slice and dice the data as you wish. The ratings are for 2005, except ACLU and PTA, for which the only ratings we could find were 2004. As a result, senators who took office in January 2005 are not rated by them and mean just averages the remaining six.

State	Senator	ACLU	ADA	CDF	LCV	NAACP	NARAL	PTA	SEIU	Mean
Illinois	Barack Obama		100	100	95	100	100		92	98
Illinois	Dick Durbin	89	100	100	95	100	100	100	100	98
Iowa	Tom Harkin	89	100	100	95	100	100	100	100	98
Maryland	Paul Sarbanes	78	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	97
California	Barbara Boxer	75	100	100	90	100	100	100	100	96
Massachusetts	Ted Kennedy	86	95	100	95	100	100	87	100	95
Minnesota	Mark Dayton	67	100	100	90	100	100	100	100	95
New Jersey	Frank Lautenberg	67	100	100	100	100	100	93	100	95
New Jersey	Bob Menendez	61	100	100	100	96	100	100	100	95
New York	Chuck Schumer	78	100	100	100	100	100	93	92	95
New York	Hillary Clinton	78	100	100	95	95	100	93	100	95
Rhode Island	Jack Reed	78	100	100	100	100	100	93	92	95
Michigan	Debbie Stabenow	78	100	100	85	100	100	100	92	94
Delaware	Joe Biden	86	100	89	90	100	100	87	92	93
Hawaii	Daniel Akaka	75	95	100	75	100	100	93	100	92
Maryland	Barbara Mikulski	78	90	89	85	95	100	100	100	92
Washington	Maria Cantwell	78	95	89	90	95	100	100	85	92
Wisconsin	Russell Feingold	78	100	100	90	95	75	100	92	91
Massachusetts	John Kerry	100	100	100	95	100	100	27	100	90
Michigan	Carl Levin	78	100	100	80	95	75	100	92	90
Vermont	Patrick Leahy	62	100	100	95	95	75	100	92	90
Washington	Patty Murray	78	95	100	95	90	75	100	85	90
Indiana	Evan Bayh	56	95	100	85	100	100	87	85	89
Connecticut	Christopher Dodd	78	100	100	90	90	75	93	77	88
Oregon	Ron Wyden	78	95	100	95	90	75	87	85	88
California	Dianne Feinstein	78	95	89	90	85	100	87	69	87
Hawaii	Daniel Inouye	56	90	100	65	90	100	100	92	87
Nevada	Harry Reid	44	100	78	100	95	100	80	92	86
Wisconsin	Herb Kohl	89	100	89	75	85	75	87	69	84
West Virginia	Jay Rockefeller	67	100	78	80	85	75	100	77	83
Vermont	James Jeffords	78	90	89	85	75	75	100	69	83
Florida	Bill Nelson	67	80	89	90	80	75	87	77	81
New Mexico	Jeff Bingaman	67	95	100	70	90	75	80	69	81
North Dakota	Byron Dorgan	56	100	78	65	90	75	93	85	80
South Dakota	Tim Johnson	67	95	78	80	90	75	80	77	80
Colorado	Kenneth Salazar		100	67	80	80	65		77	78
Connecticut	Joseph Lieberman	83	80	89	70	85	75	60	83	78
Delaware	Tom Carper	56	90	89	80	75	75	87	62	77
Arkansas	Blanche Lincoln	67	95	67	65	85	75	87	69	76
West Virginia	Robert Byrd	56	95	78	65	85	55	100	77	76
Arkansas	Mark Pryor	56	90	67	60	85	75	93	67	74
Louisiana	Mary Landrieu	56	95	78	50	85	65	87	69	73
Montana	Max Baucus	78	90	56	55	85	75	73	75	73
North Dakota	Kent Conrad	44	85	67	60	75	75	80	67	69
Rhode Island	Lincoln Chafee	67	75	89	90	75	65	27	46	67
Maine	Susan Collins	56	65	44	70	60	55	20	54	53
Maine	Olympia Snowe	56	65	44	70	60	55	7	62	52

Nebraska	Ben Nelson	33	55	67	30	55	20	87	46	49
Ohio	Mike DeWine	22	50	78	45	65	0	0	38	37
Pennsylvania	Arlen Specter	22	45	22	72	35	20	7	42	33
Minnesota	Norm Coleman	11	30	33	35	45	0	7	31	24
Oregon	Gordon Smith	0	20	33	45	30	10	0	15	19
Arizona	John McCain	22	10	22	45	5	0	7	23	17
Ohio	George Voinovich	33	15	33	15	15	0	0	17	16
New Hampshire	John Sununu	38	10	11	40	10	0	0	0	14
South Carolina	Lindsey Graham	11	20	11	20	10	0	0	23	12
Virginia	John Warner	11	10	11	20	10	10	7	8	11
Alaska	Lisa Murkowski	0	20	11	10	10	10	13	0	9
Indiana	Richard Lugar	0	10	11	20	25	0	0	8	9
Missouri	Jim Talent	11	15	0	15	30	0	0	0	9
Nebraska	Chuck Hagel	22	10	11	5	5	0	7	8	9
New Mexico	Pete Domenici	0	15	22	5	15	0	0	15	9
South Dakota	John Thune		10	0	15	20	0		8	9
Texas	Kay Hutchison	22	15	11	5	15	0	7	0	9
New Hampshire	Judd Gregg	12	5	11	30	5	0	0	0	8
Pennsylvania	Rick Santorum	11	10	11	10	20	0	0	0	8
Wyoming	Michael Enzi	22	10	0	10	10	0	0	8	8
Idaho	Larry Craig	11	15	0	5	10	0	0	15	7
Kansas	Sam Brownback	11	10	11	10	5	0	0	8	7
Louisiana	David Vitter	0	15	0	10	20	0	0	8	7
Alabama	Richard Shelby	11	10	0	5	15	0	0	8	6
Florida	Mel Martinez		5	0	10	10	0		8	6
Idaho	Michael Crapo	11	10	0	5	15	0	0	8	6
Kansas	Pat Roberts	22	0	11	0	5	0	7	0	6
Montana	Conrad Burns	0	10	0	5	15	0	0	15	6
Nevada	John Ensign	11	5	0	20	5	0	7	0	6
North Carolina	Richard Burr	10	5	0	5	5	0	23	0	6
Tennessee	Lamar Alexander	22	5	0	15	5	0	0	0	6
Alaska	Ted Stevens	0	5	11	5	10	10	0	0	5
Colorado	Wayne Allard	22	0	0	5	10	0	0	0	5
Iowa	Charles Grassley	11	5	11	10	5	0	0	0	5
Mississippi	Trent Lott	22	5	0	0	5	0	7	0	5
Tennessee	Bill Frist	0	15	11	5	5	0	0	0	5
Wyoming	Craig Thomas	0	10	0	15	10	0	0	8	5
North Carolina	Elizabeth Dole	11	5	0	0	15	0	0	0	4
Utah	Robert Bennett	11	5	0	5	10	0	0	0	4
Georgia	Johnny Isakson	0	5	0	5	10	0	0	0	3
Kentucky	Mitch McConnell	0	5	11	0	5	0	0	0	3
Oklahoma	James Inhofe	12	5	0	0	5	0	0	0	3
Oklahoma	Tom Coburn		5	0	5	5	0		0	3
South Carolina	Jim DeMint	5	5	0	5	5	0	0	0	3
Texas	John Cornyn	11	10	0	0	5	0	0	0	3
Utah	Orrin Hatch	0	5	0	10	10	0	0	0	3
Virginia	George Allen	0	5	0	5	15	0	0	0	3
Arizona	Jon Kyl	0	5	0	5	5	0	0	0	2
Georgia	Saxby Chambliss	0	5	0	0	10	0	0	0	2
Kentucky	Jim Bunning	0	5	0	0	5	0	0	0	1
Mississippi	Thad Cochran	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	1
Missouri	Kit Bond	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	1
Alabama	Jeff Sessions	0	0	0	5	5	0	0	0	1

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