Since the election of 2000 (intensified after this most recent election), we have been subjected to a constant sniveling from those who feel they are "disenfranchised" because they are blue voters stuck in red states. (I cannot recall ever hearing the same from conservatives in blue states, although they certainly exist). As a little exercise, I looked at the voting records of the congressmen and senators representing my last four homes; it is interesting, to say the least.

Now, a word about the numbers I used to come up with the "composite conservative" number. I went to the website for the American Conservative Union and pulled the lifetime rating for each legislator (as delineated by the ACU). I then went to the website for Americans for Democratic Action, and pulled their numbers (it's only for the last session; I did not feel like crunching numbers for the career records, and ADA hasn't updated their lifetime list since 1999). I took the second number and inverted it as a proportion of 100% (80% became 20%, for example), since I was looking for a "conservative number". I then took the inverted ADA number, added it to the ACU number, and divided by two. This gives a fairly equal weight to records, since the ACU is undeniably conservative, and ADA is undeniably liberal.

WASHINGTON (2nd District):

Murray (D) 6.5
Cantwell (D) 11.5
Larsen (D) 15.0

California (53rd and 51st districts):

Boxer (D) 3.5
Feinstein (D) 10.5
Davis (D) 7.0
Filner(D) 2.0

Florida (19th District):

Graham (D) 22.0
Nelson (D) 18.5
Wexler (D) 7.5

I'd say that most of those "blue in a sea of red" types have nothing to complain about. FWIW, at the presidential level, Washington and California have voted Dem since 1988, and while Florida is a reliably Republican state, Broward County (a part of which is in Wexler's district) is the bluest county in the state.

posted on December 03, 2004 02:10 PM



Comments:

I read an interesting point today while trolling blogs. 'How does the post election selection trauma in the US compare to the election trauma of the electorate in Afghanistan?'

Totally OT

http://instalawyer.blogspot.com/

Monday, November 29, 2004

[...]Well Task Force 2-7 Cav made it back from Fallujah earlier than expected, mission accomplished. It feels so good to be back from a second successful mission that was as difficult as it was dangerous. We left Camp Cooke on Nov 1 and staged at Camp Fallujah for about a week. While there, we got the good news that George Bush was re-elected and we had busy days and nights of planning and rehearsals for the big attack. 2 days before "D Day," a 122 mm rocket impacted 50 meters away from our tents that sent everyone to the floor. We staged there at a remote part of the post and it was obvious that a local national tipped off the "mujahadin" (Arabic name for the enemy) where we staged. From that attack, we lost one soldier and 4 more were wounded. That attack gave the rest of the Task Force enough anger to last the whole fight. After all the drills and rehearsals, the day for the attack finally came on Nov 8. Prime Minister Allawi gave the green light and Coalition and Iraqi forces went all the way.[...]

OT

http://instapundit.com/archives/019440.php

HELPING THE TROOPS: Reader Ron Ford sends this very comprehensive list of support-the-troops websites...

posted by POLLTROLL on December 4, 2004 10:14 PM

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That may be true but lets face it, when was the last time a conservative lost a political race that was close. Especially at the national level. Bush I, did not even come close to winning against Clinton, neither did Ford against Carter.

posted by Paul on December 9, 2004 10:17 AM

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Actually, Paul, Ford lost nationwide by about 800,000 votes, but lost Ohio and Hawaii by a combined total of 18,000 votes. Had he carried those two states, he would have won enough states to win in the electoral college. (One of the Republican electors from Washington State voted for Reagan instead, but he probably would have voted for Ford if the alternative was a Carter presidency.)

posted by timekeeper on December 9, 2004 06:22 PM

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