How Conservative Are (Were) They?

As we watch (often with disappointment, if not outright disgust) the performance of Congress and its inability to resolve (or at least battle effectively) the issues that actually matter, it is a wonder how they keep getting re-elected (85-98% in the House; 55-96% in the Senate, but it takes 3 election cycles for all of them to stand for re-election to their 6-yr term). At least you know that YOUR Representative and Senators reflect your values here in Missouri … right? According to the Heritage Foundation (HF) and American Conservative Union’s (ACU) Conservative report cards, here are how Missouri’s elected federal legislators stacked up in the just-previously-ended 2011-2012 session. Use the HF and ACU links above to review how each organization stands on key issues to better understand how they rate our Legislators:

HERITAGE FOUNDATION CONSERVATIVE RATINGS
DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE OR SENATOR PARTY HF%
2nd Former Rep. Todd Akin
(Repl. by Rep. Ann Wagner)
R 82%
7th Rep. Billy Long R 75%
US SENATE REPUB AVERAGE R 73%
4th Rep. Vicky Hartzler R 67%
US HOUSE REPUB AVERAGE R 66%
MO Sen. Roy Blunt R 64%
6th Rep. Sam Graves R 57%
was 9th
now 3rd
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer R 55%
8th Retiring Rep. Jo Ann Emerson R 46%
US HOUSE DEM AVERAGE D 15%
5th Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II D 13%
was 3rd
now 1&2
Former Rep. Russ Carnahan D 12%
MO Sen. Claire McCaskill D 11%
1st Rep. William Clay D 10%
US SENATE DEM AVERAGE D 6%

 

AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION RATINGS
DIST REPRESENTATIVE OR SENATOR PARTY ACU %
2011-2012 (Lifetime)
2nd Former Rep. Todd Akin
(Repl. by Rep. Ann Wagner)
R 91.7% – 100% (97.5%)
7th Rep. Billy Long R 92% – 96% – (94%)
6th Rep. Sam Graves R 76% – 84% (89.8%)
MO Sen. Roy Blunt R 70% – 72% (90.8%)
was 9th
now 3rd
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer R 76% – 80% (88%)
4th Rep. Vicky Hartzler R 80% – 88% (84%)
8th Retiring Rep. Jo Ann Emerson R 56% – 60% (78.3%)
MO Sen. Claire McCaskill D 0% – 20% (15.5%)
5th Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II D 8.3% – 0% (2.54%)
was 3rd
now 1&2
Former Rep. Russ Carnahan D 0% – 4% (2.5%)
1st Rep. William Clay D 0% – 0% (7.6%)