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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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