The Most Unliberal Senator
One of the most useful aspects of our legislative scorecards for the House and Senate is that they enable people to compare members of Congress in terms of what they do – not just the public pose they adopt for the sake of their constituents. Assembling the records of votes and cosponsorships in Congress, we can see which politicians are more liberal, and which are more regressive.
Particularly interesting are the outliers, such as David Vitter, the most unliberal member of the United States Senate. Senator Vitter has a net congressional score of negative 100, the lowest possible score there is. That score means that, for the 111th Congress, Vitter has stood against every piece of progressive legislation we’ve entered into our scorecard database, and supported every regressive piece of legislation.
Other members of the Republican Party don’t even come close to the anti-progressive fervor of Senator Vitter. The closest are a group of 18 Republican senators who have achieved a net congressional score of negative 60, but still 40 points shy of Vitter’s extreme position.
