Replies

TOP TEN INCREASES

State	House/ Senate	Name	Dem/ Rep	2002	2001	Life	Years	Change
New York	H	Sue Kelly	R	88	40	65	8	48
Connecticut	H	Christopher Shays	R	76	32	48	16	44
Minnesota	H	Jim Ramstad	R	92	52	71	12	40
New York	H	Sherwood Boehlert	R	64	32	39	20	32
New York	H	Amo Houghton	R	62	30	54	16	32
Iowa	H	Jim Leach	R	56	25	44	26	31
New York	H	Benjamin Gilman	R	67	36	46	30	31
Maryland	H	Wayne Gilchrest	R	78	48	64	12	30
Pennsylvania	H	Jim Greenwood	R	78	48	62	10	30
Delaware	H	Michael Castle	R	76	48	61	10	28

TOP TEN DECREASES

State	House/ Senate	Name	Dem/ Rep	2002	2001	Life	Years	Change
Pennsylvania	H	Frank Mascara	D	20	56	31	8	-36
Texas	H	Solomon Ortiz	D	25	60	32	20	-35
Missouri	H	Ike Skelton	D	32	64	48	26	-32
North Dakota	S	Kent Conrad	D	10	36	20	16	-26
West Virginia	S	Robert Byrd	D	15	40	30	32	-25
Michigan	H	Dale Kildee	D	8	32	12	26	-24
Pennsylvania	H	Mike Doyle	D	8	32	24	8	-24
West Virginia	H	Alan Mollohan	D	24	48	31	20	-24
Illinois	H	William Lipinski	D	32	55	39	20	-23
Vermont	S	James Jeffords	D	6	29	26	18	-23

Pennsylvania H Pat Toomey R 100 100 97 4
Pennsylvania S Rick Santorum R 95 100 87 12
Pennsylvania S Arlen Specter R 50 56 42 22

I'll lose the formatting, but you'll get the picture... Anyone inspired to support Pat Toomey in his senate race against Arlen Specter?

Interesting to see that Arlen Specter has now eclipsed Lincoln Chafee to claim the mantle of most liberal Republican, and also with Judas Jim Jeffords' switch, how hard-left he went, eclipsing a large section of the 'Rats. A "6", unbelievable. We should've smelled this character a long time ago, what a joke.

STATES RANKED BY AVERAGE LIFETIME RATING

Wyoming	93.33
Idaho	93.25
Kentucky	88.25
Oklahoma	85.50
New Hampshire	85.25
Kansas	82.33
Utah	81.80
Arizona	80.75
Alabama	78.00
Nebraska	75.60
Alaska	74.00
Virginia	72.62
Mississippi	72.29
Tennessee	69.27
Colorado	68.63
South Carolina	67.25
Montana	66.67
Georgia	66.00
Louisiana	62.44
North Carolina	61.43
Indiana	61.33
Iowa	59.29
Florida	59.28
Missouri	58.36
Texas	57.56
Ohio	57.00
Nevada	54.75
Pennsylvania	54.26
New Mexico	51.80
Arkansas	50.00
Illinois	49.68
Michigan	40.50
South Dakota	39.67
California	38.41
Wisconsin	37.55
Minnesota	34.40
New Jersey	33.73
Washington	33.73
West Virginia	33.00
Delaware	32.33
Oregon	30.71
New York	30.55
Maryland	29.90
Maine	29.50
Connecticut	28.00
North Dakota	20.00
Rhode Island	16.50
Vermont	12.67
Hawaii	7.00
Massachusetts	5.42

Does the ACU take a Senator's or Representative's votes on abortion into consideration when handing out their rankings? The numbers suggest that they did in 2001, when the 10 pro-abortion Republicans listed in "Top Ten Increases" scored between 25 and 52 (average score, 39), while the 7 pro-life Democrats listed in "Top Ten Decreases" (all but Byrd, Conrad and Jeffords) scored between 32 and 64 (average score, 50). But in 2002, the same 10 pro-abortion Republicans scored between 56 and 92 (average score, 74), while the same 7 pro-life Democrats scored between 8 and 32 (average score, 21), which suggests that their votes on abortion were not taken into account. Given the general increase in ACU ratings in 2002 for nominal Republicans (heck, Lincoln Chafee scored a 56, for crying out loud!), I have to assume that the ACU gave more weight in 2002 to party-line votes on proposals pushed by the Democratic Senate and Republican House, respectively, than in previous years, at the expense of pro-life issues.

That helps explain why Arlen Specter's ratings were 53 in 2002 but are 42 for his career. Given the fact that all Republicans received a slight "bump" from the ACU in 2002, Specter's rating is just as pitiful as it's ever been. To Specter apologists out there, all I have to say is, go, Pat, go!