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New ACU ratings: Analyzing the Senate

By: froster (Diary)  |  February 12th, 2011 at 01:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The New American Conservative Union ratings are out.

In 2010, the following Senators received scores of more than 80 on the ACU score:
*Lamar Alexander
*John Barrasso
*Bob Bennett
*Kit Bond
*Sam Brownback
*Jim Bunning
*Richard Burr
*Saxby Chambliss
*Tom Coburn
*Thad Cochran
*Bob Corker
*John Cornyn
*Mike Crapo
*Jim DeMint
*John Ensign
*Mike Enzi
*Lindsey Graham
*Chuck Grassley
*Orrin Hatch
*Kay Bailey Hutchinson
*James Inhofe
*Johnny Isakson
*Mike Johanns
*Jon Kyl
*George LeMieux
*John McCain
*Mitch McConnell
*Jim Risch
*Pat Roberts
*Jeff Sessions
*Richard Shelby
*John Thune
*David Vitter
*Roger Wicker

So, which Republican caucus members were not on this list?
*George Voinovich (retired)
*Judd Gregg (retired)
*Scott Brown
*Susan Collins
*Olympia Snowe
*Dick Lugar
*Mark Kirk
*Lisa Murkowski

There are some common misconceptions about certain Senators on here that I feel compelled to address.

Lindsey Graham voted with the Democrats less than 17 of his colleagues. If you think Graham’s vote for Elena Kagan is enough to warrant a primary challenge, well, then, yeah, you are furious at him. But if you are furious at him because he has voted with the Democrats on major pieces of legislation, well then your point doesn’t stand.

So who needs to get a primary?

Mark Kirk
It is too early to say whether Mark Kirk does. After all, he has only been in the Senate for several months. He voted for Food Safety and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I don’t think nominating a conservative Republican in Illinois is a good idea though – We tried that with Bill Brady in the most conservative year (probably ever), and he lost. Kirk has a nice collection of rural, suburb votes (which are not as strong Republican as they used to be), and some city votes. Kirk is up for reelection in 2016.S

Scott Brown

And then there are those that would like to lose a seat with someone principled rather than keep the seat with a moderate. First of all, Scott Brown voted the conservative position 3/4 of the time. Let’s face it, Jim DeMint isn’t going to win in MA, where Republicans will make up about 25% of the vote on election day in 2012. Scott Brown is a legit conservative – he is trying to go as far as possible and still try to be reelected. If the Senate comes down to 50-50, and it turns out that Reid still controls the Senate because we nominated a more conservative candidate … well, I hope that doesn’t happen. Pick a candidate that supports you 3/4 of the time and doesn’t try to make a big deal of his cross-over votes (unlike the Maine women) or a candidate who won’t support you at all, will support the Kennedy union agenda, and will put Reid/Durbin in charge of the Senate.

Dick Lugar
There’s not much to say here. This guy’s been there way too long and it’s RED Indiana. 71% conservative.

The Maine Women
The Maine Women … Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. When they vote against us and for the liberal government funding agenda, they make a big deal of it and it really annoys the heck out of me. I believe that Paul LePage shows a conservative can get elected in Maine…but this needs to be a conservative who knows his or her issues well and is not a celebrity like O’Donnell. Maine people won’t like that (or Angle).

Let me know what your opinion is on the moderates in the Senate …

and the voting can be found here.

http://www.conservative.org/ratings/ratingsarchive/2010/2010SenateRatings.htm#SC

http://www.conservative.org/congress-ratings/2010-u-s-senate-vote-descriptions

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  • informed

    I’m from mass. and have followed Sen. brown for many years. For anyone to say he is not conservative, you clearly have never met him. Hard core fiscal and national security conservative. Has never voted for a tax increase in over 16 years. I’m not sure what poll acu is using, but the national dems are trying to portray him as a hardcore right winger and often reference that he is 83.9 percent with the R’s on his votes. So how can the acu poll say he is below80 percent? Don’t forget, that had Brown not won the entire agenda for the country would have changed for the worse. His race was ground zero thar started our reveolution. We need to support the most conservative elected official in MA or we WILL have another Kennedy. Ugh. Go scott

  • swami7774

    Redstaters from other states must realize: we’re not going to do better than Scott Brown. You can be a purist and cut off your nose to spite your face, or you can accept 75-80% of what you want.
    An easy choice for me and other Bay State conservs. Should be for you too.

    • earlgrey

      Personally I am not happy with Lugar or Corker.(although he ranks higher on the ACU list). Lugar seems to be egging on conservativs for a primary challenge.

      He is much loved in IN (I dont’ live there anymore so maybe that has changed). He would be tough to beat and I can see him pulling a Crist if he thinks he’ll lose the primary.

      Very tough call. It is high stakes, but he seems to want to pick a fight.

      • froster

        nt

      • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

        I hear lots of caterwauling about Brown and the ME Girls but I have yet to see anybody post some names of possible candidates who could even make a credible primary run let alone a credible general election run.

        I agree on Lugar and Corker, especially Lugar. I’d love to see Hatch dropped through the Bennett hole as well.

        ’12 should be about winning, not about making O’Donnellesque “statements”.

  • Scope

    is that they are about as useful as CPAC has been this year. Of course David Keene is the Chair of the ACU, and it is him and his team that determine the ratings. Keene has never met a Liberal Republican he doesn’t like, which makes the ratings far from Conservative. It appears you agree with him.

    As to Graham, his biggest faux paus wasn’t only with his Kagan vote, it is his support of Cap and Trade, and the Democrat version of an Amnesty bill that is far more destructive to conservatives. Fortunately for conservatives those bills never came to the floor for a vote in the Senate.

    I guess if one is a RINO, Democrat Lite, or Liberal Republican, they would consider your entire analysis fair and balanced. For this conservative, I couldn’t disagree more.

    • froster

      I consider myself a moderate-conservative Republican.

      The fact is that Lindsey Graham did not vote for cap and trade. We have no idea what he would have accepted (since the negotiations broke down) besides the fact that he thinks global warming is happening and that we need to do something about it. (which might be right, the facts are inconclusive, but is the right philosophy, just as long as the government is not at the head of it)

      Did Graham vote for amnesty? He definitely didn’t this Congress – did he the last time?

      • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

        They base ratings on specific recorded votes, ignoring all but just a few votes and completely ignore issues like immigration and cap ‘n tax if there is no vote.

        • acat

          both those added “stealthly” in committee (RonPaul being a flagrant offender) and those attached “publically” to bills….

          Just sayin’, if we’re going to point out the flaws in ratings, let’s be complete.

          Mew

          • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

            I left out a bunch of stuff and the bottom line is that ratings are a phenomenally poor benchmark to use to judge a Critter.

  • IJB

    I was frankly surprised by that. That doesn’t strike me as acceptable for a Senator from Deep Red NE. (For comparison, that score was worse than Grassley’s.) Johanns bares watching to see if that was just a one-year fluke, or the start of a trend.

  • Finrod

    Lots of conservatives in Indiana think Dick Lugar has been in Congress too long for his own (and the state’s) good. The question is finding and agreeing on one candidate that can oust him, since Indiana doesn’t do runoffs (multiple conservatives will split the vote).

    • acat

      He’ll have a bit better name recognition this time ’round… and if we get behind him early, it may help keep other conservatives from trying to compete….

      http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/03/26/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-indiana-senate-race-in-one-article/

      Mew

      • froster

        You don’t run for the Senate after one term. That’s not the way politicians should act.

        • earlgrey

          After 2010 the credibility of the tea party was questioned a bit since we supported O’Donnell and also Angle. I am not sure I agree in either case with the general populace, but I think if conservative activists and tea partiers want to be taken seriously we need to look closely at a candidate qualifications, while of course

          laying the groundwork for future conservative superstars by supporting them for local office.

    • earlgrey

      Indiana State Treasurer that brought or tried to bring the Chrysler bailout to the Supreme Court. He was representing Indiana State pension funds that were effected as bondholders by the bailout. I like a guy with guts who is willing to fight. An experience like that would stick to him, and I don’t see him going soft on conservatism after a couple of years in DC.

  • Bill S

    But now that it’s obvious that the ACU doesn’t even know the meaning of “conservative,” the ratings are fairly worthless.