Senator Obama also has a higher liberal rating than any other Senator running for President this year. The National Journal has just released its 2006 annual ratings of Congress based on roll call votes on key economic, social and foreign policy issues.
When the New York Times political blog compared their lifetime scores they came up with the following ranking:
Senator Barack Obama………………….84.3
Representative Dennis Kucinich……..79.4
Senator Christopher J. Dodd ………….79.2
Senator Hiliary Rodham Clinton ……78.8
Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr……………76.8
Former Senator John Edwards, who is also running for President was not included in this analysis but I came across the following written by Richard Cohen of the National Journal in Feb 2004:
“Judging by National Journal’s congressional vote ratings, however, Kerry and Edwards aren’t all that different, at least not when it comes to how they voted on key issues before the Senate last year. The results of the vote ratings show that Kerry was the most liberal senator in 2003, with a composite liberal score of 96.5. But Edwards wasn’t far behind: He had a 2003 composite liberal score of 94.5, making him the fourth-most-liberal senator. ”
“Edwards … had a moderate voting record during the first four years following his election to the Senate in 1998. The results positioned Edwards comfortably apart from Senate liberals, but not so far to the right that he locked arms with centrist Republicans. His consistent moderation placed Edwards among the center-right of Senate Democrats. But once Edwards decided to run for president and abandoned his bid for a second Senate term, his record moved dramatically to the left in 2003.”
I do not have access to the National Journal’s archives but maybe someone else can find and calculate Edward’s composite ratings. It would appear that he and Obama probably would come out pretty similar. The ratings vary year by year. Note below that Kerry scored much lower in 2006, coming in 12th in the ratings
On the 2006 composite liberal scores in the US Senate released by the National Journal today, Senator Richard Durbin (D) of Illinois received the highest score of 95.2 followed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D) of California with 95. The scores rank from 1 to 100, with 100 being the highest liberal ranking.
Washington State’s Senator Patty Murray (D) came in 8th highest at 89.3. Our other Senator, Maria Cantwell (D) came in 22nd with a score of 79.9.
Comparing the current Democratic Presidential candidates with a few other notable 2006 Democratic Senators, we get an interesting list:
1. Senator Richard Durbin (Illinois)…………………..95.2
2. Senator Barbara Boxer (California)………………..95
3. Senator Edward Kennedy (Massachusetts) ……..93.7
8. Senator Patty Murray (Washington) ………………89.3
10. Senator Barack Obama (Illinois)………..86 …Presidential Candidate
11. Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon) ……………………..86
12. Senator John Kerry (Massachusetts)…………… 85.7
15. Senator Russell Feingold (Wisconsin)………….. 84.5
17. Senator Christopher Dodd (Conn.)……..84 …Presidential Candidate
22. Senator Maria Cantwell (Washington) ………..79.7
23. Senator Harry Reid (Nevada)………………………78.2
24 Senator Joseph Biden (Delaware) ………77.5 …Presidential Candidate
25. Senator Dianne Feinstein (California)………….76.5
32. Senator Hiliary .Clinton (New York) …70.2 …Presidential Candidate
36. Senator Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut) ……67.5
On a separate listing of House members, Dennis Kucinich came in at #50 0ut of 454 members in the House. He had a liberal composite score of 87 for 2006.
