McCain's ACU Ratings

Senator John McCain's lifetime rating of 82.3% from the American Conservative Union is often cited as proof that he is conservative. Here is a closer look at that 82.3 rating.

First, a rating of 82.3 is not really that high. It puts Senator McCain in 39^th place among senators serving in 2006, the latest year for which the ACU has its ratings posted online. For that most recent year in particular, McCain scored only 65, putting him in 47^th place for that year. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), for example, scored 64 and 75, respectively, in 2006.

Generally, McCain has voted less conservatively in more recent years. His average for 1990-97 was 88, but was only 74 for 1998-2006. Below are his yearly ratings since 1990.

Year	ACU Rating
2006	65
2005	80
2004	72
2003	80
2002	72
2001	68
2000	81
1999	77
1998	68
1997	80
1996	95
1995	91
1994	96
1993	83
1992	85
1991	86
1990	87

So where did McCain differ from the ACU? The big areas were taxes, campaign finance reform, the environment and, most recently, immigration. There was also a smattering of support for trial lawyers; federal intervention in health, education, safety or voting issues; internationalism; and some social issues. He was more consistently conservative on spending and defense issues. The list below summarizes all his votes since 1998 that differed from the ACU's position.

Year and Issue	Vote Margin
2006, Taxes	50-50
2006, Immigration	50-49
2006, Immigration	62-36
2006, Social: Same Sex Marriage	49-48
2006, Native Hawaiian Govt.	56-41
2006, International: Iran sanctions	54-45
2006, Immigration: Border Fence	71-29
2006, Social: Embryonic Stem Cells	63-37
2005, Taxes	51-49
2005, Environment: Climate Change	60-38
2005, Environment: mercury emissions	51-47
2005, Environment: ANWR	51-48
2005, Taxes: Oil & gas development	51-48
2004, Spending/Social: School vouchers	65-28
2004, Regulation: seat belts	57-41
2004, Legal Reform: Gun manufacturers	70-27
2004, Spending: Unemployment	58-39
2004, Taxes	51-48
2004, Spending: Education of disabled	56-41
2004, Legal Reform: Torts	44-43
2003, Taxes	50-50
2003, Taxes	50-50
2003, Taxes	51-49
2003, Environment: Kyoto	55-43
2002, Voter fraud, state control	55-40
2002, Regulation: SUV fuel efficiency	56-44
2002, CFR	60-40
2002, Taxes: death tax	55-44
2001, CFR	69-31
2001, CFR	60-40
2001, CFR	57-43
2001, Taxes: marriage penalty	73-27
2001, Taxes: capital gains	51-47
2001, Taxes	58-33
2001, Taxes/Health: med. savings accounts	53-45
2001, Legal Reform: torts	54-42
2000, Taxes	56-44
2000, International: Troops in Kosovo	53-47
2000, CFR: Brad Smith on FEC	65-35
2000, CFR	57-42
1999, International: Troops in Kosovo	N/A
1999, Health: managed care	N/A
1999, Spending	N/A
1999, CFR	N/A
1998, Health: surgeon general confirm.	75-23
1998, CFR	50-47
1998, CFR	50-48
1998, CFR	51-48
1998, Taxes: tobacco	72-26
1998, Taxes: tobacco	57-42
1998, International: Troops in Bosnia	65-31
1998, International: IMF lending	74-19

Another piece of information from the list above is that many of the votes were close. In one third of these votes, a swing of only two senators would have changed the outcome. In over two thirds, a swing of ten senators would have changed the outcome. As someone remarked, McCain is like a baseball player who gets all his hits after two outs and no one on base, and all his outs with men in scoring position.

As might be expected, ACU ratings essentially reflect party affiliation. At the halfway point, ranking 50^th, we have Richard Shelby (R-AL, formerly D-AL) with a lifetime score of 74.2. But Robert Byrd (D-WV) ranks just slightly lower at 58^th, with a score of only 29.6. By the time you get to 66^th place, all scores are below 20.

What this means is that McCain's ACU ratings since 1998 put him on the liberal side among Republicans. The few Republicans consistently more liberal than McCain would be Chafee (formerly R-RI), Collins (R-ME), Snowe (R-ME) and Specter (R-PA). One could expect senators from northeastern states to be more liberal since their constituencies demand it, but McCain represents the fairly conservative state of Arizona. (Arizona's other senator, Kyl, has a lifetime rating of 96.9, and half the representatives from there have ratings of 94.7 or higher.)

How much more liberal would McCain vote if his constituency put even the slightest pressure on him in that direction?

On the other hand, Senator Clinton (D-NY) has a lifetime ACU rating of 9 (83^rd place) and Senator Obama (D-IL) has a rating of 8 (86^th place).

Not much the cheer about here.

Randall Hoven can be reached at randall.hoven@gmail.com.

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