2009 ACU Congressional Ratings Released

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The American Conservative Union (ACU) has released it's 2009 Ratings of Congress. (The ACU is the organization that puts on CPAC - Conservative Political Action Conference.)

It clearly shows that the Congress has moved farther to the left and is more Liberal than ever. Surprisingly, it also shows more Conservatives in Congress than one might suspect. Ten Senators and 56 Representatives scored a perfect 100% and were thus awarded the title Defenders of Liberty.

The ten Senators who scored 100% were: John Barrasso (WY), Richard Burr (NC), Tom Coburn (OK), John Cornyn (TX), John Ensign (NV), Mike Enzi (WY), Jim Inhofe (OK), John Thune (SD), and David Vitter (LA).

In 2009, 236 House Members earned an ACU conservatism score of 20 or less—the ACU definition of a liberal—up even from last year’s 220 liberal Congressmen, an increase from only 144 liberals as recently as 2006. No Republican rated a liberal designation.

In a year characterized by Democratic members uniting with President Barack Obama on a common agenda, the number of those earning a perfect liberalism score of zero totaled an impressive 143 members, increasing the number of pure liberal members by a striking 58 more members than the previous year.

The number of House Republicans scoring an ACU rating of 80% or higher—that is voting as conservatives— after falling precipitously last year, returned to the average of the final George Bush years, with 154 members rating conservative in 2009,

Those earning a perfect conservative rating of 100% increased to 56 members in 2009, up from an anemic 31 the previous year.

It is likely that 2009 will come to be recognized as the highpoint of liberal voting in Congress.
Democrats may well look back to 2008-09 as the golden years of liberalism.

Those House members who scored a perfect 100% rating are listed below. Three were from Ohio, but not from Northern Ohio.

Akin, Bachmann, Bilirakis, Bishop Rob, Blackburn, Brady, Broun, Burgess, Cantor, Chaffetz, Conaway, Culberson, Deal, Flake, Fleming, Foxx, Franks, Garrett, Gohmert, Goodlatte, Hensarling, Herger, Issa, Johnson Sam, Jordan (OH), Kline, Lamborn, Latta (OH), Linder, Lummis, Lungren, Mack, Marchant, McCarthy, McClintock, McHenry, Mica, Miller Jeff, Neugebauer, Olson, Pence, Posey, Price, Radanovich, Rohrabacher, Roskam, Royce, Scalise, Schmidt (OH), Sensenbrenner, Sessions, Shadegg, Smith Adrian, Sullivan, Thornberry, and Westmoreland.

You can view the entire 2009 ACU Rating for yourself.