Chicagoland pols rated on ideology

by James Oliphant

Want to know cut through the press-release rhetoric and determine how conservative or liberal your member of Congress really is?

National Journal, a must-read for the inside-the-Beltway types, has released its annual rankings of House and Senate members, scoring them on economic, social and foreign policy issues. As the publication puts it:

The members are rated in each of the three issue categories on both liberal and conservative scales, with the scores on each scale given as percentiles. An economic score of 78 on the liberal scale, for example, means that the member was more liberal than 78 percent of his or her House colleagues on the key votes in that issue area during 2008.

In the House, breakdowns for the Chicagoland delegation in 2008 are listed below. The first score indicates the percentage votes that took a more liberal position, the second indicates votes that ran more conservatively.

We have included former Rep. Rahm Emanuel because he has now has the ear of President Obama in a way none of his former peers on the Hill could hope to.

MORE LIBERAL

Jesse Jackson, D-2nd (90.7/9.3)
Danny Davis, D-7 (84.3/15.7)
Luis Gutierrez, D-4th (78.3/21.7)
Jan Schakowsky, D-9th (76.2/23.8)
Rahm Emanuel, D-6th (73.3/26.7)*
Dan Lipinski, D-3rd (69.2/30.8)

CENTRIST

Melissa Bean, D-8th (49.5/50.5)
Mark Kirk, R-10th (42.2/57.8)

MORE CONSERVATIVE

Judy Biggert, R-13, (35.8/64.2)
Jerry Weller, R-11th (35.3/64.7)**
Peter Roskam, R-6th (29.5/70.5)

Not listed: Rep. Bobby Rush, D-1st, who missed much of last session recovering from cancer surgery.

In case you are wondering, Sen. Dick Durbin scored out at 85.7/14.3, solidly placing him on the liberal side of the continuum. As for new Sen. Roland Burris, we'll have to wait until next year to see where he lands.

* Resigned to join Obama administration; seat remains unfilled.

** Weller did not seek re-election. Replaced by Democrat Debbie Halvorson.