National Journal Ranks Senate and House

The National Journal has just released their 2005 rankings of Senators and Represenatives. The NJ rates votes as liberal or conservative and provides a further breakdown into three components.

It's a pretty neat tool, with on-line sorting available.

Here's what it says about my home state of Kansas

Sam Brownback scores 79 percent conservative and 21 percent liberal. That makes him only the 21st most conservative Senator. That's the mirror image of Hilary Clinton who scored 79 percent liberal and 21 percent conservative.

Brownback's component scores were Economic 80 Social 64 and Foreign 74.

Since Brownback is considered the darling of the social conservatives, I'm not sure what to make of this.

Pat Roberts scored 31.5 percent conservative and 68.5 percent liberal. That makes him the 38th most conservative Senator.

Roberts' components were Economic 72 Social 62 and Foreign 65.

Todd Tiahrt (R-4th District -Wichita) tied for 15th most conservative Congressman with a Conservative score of 92.

Jim Ryun (R-2nd District-Topeka) was only a little behind Tiahrt scoring 90.5 on the Journal's conservative scale.

While Tiahrt and Ryun scores reveal them to be extreme Conservatives out of touch with their constituents (both districts have elected moderates Democrats in the past), the state's other two Congressmen Jerry Moran and Dennis Moore are shown to be a moderate Republican and a moderate Democrat respectively. In fact, their scores are almost mirror images.

Jerry Moran (R-1st District Western Kansas) scored 66.7 on the conservative scale.
On the economic component his conservative score was 68. The social component was 78 percent and the foreign component was 53 percent

Dennis Moore (D-3rd--Kansas City and Johnson County) scored ranked 38 percent on the conservative scale (which is 62 percent on the liberal scale). Interstingly, that's the same score as Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha. Moore's component scores were 37 conservative on economics, 35 percent conservative on social issues, and 42 percent conservative on foreign.

The NJ explains its methodology here. The Senate votes are found here and the House votes here.