Lawmaker Voting and Rating Tracker

How to Use the Tracker:

The tracker allows you to search by the lawmaker’s:

• Name
• Votes by year
• Vote rating by year
• Most recent rating
• Most recent votes
• Lifetime rating
• Lifetime votes
• You can filter your search by “issues” and by “year”.
• You can also compare lawmaker’s as well.

Metrics

• 105,000 bills evaluated annually
• 2,000 bills scored annually
• 8,000 lawmakers rated annually

“To determine legislative rankings, the CLA annually evaluates over 105,000 bills that were introduced in Congress and every convening state legislature running from January 1 to December 31. Of those bills, the CLA ultimately selects roughly 2,000 pieces of legislation that best illustrate how elected officials view the

Methodology

“The CLA’s Ratings of Congress and the States illustrate how elected officials view the role of government in an individual’s life. When determining a position on a particular issue, the CLA begins by defining conservatism: the political philosophy that sovereignty resides in the person. Then, we apply the Founders’ belief that the proper role of government is to protect life, liberty and property.

In order to depict how closely a lawmaker adheres to conservative principles, the CLA selects from the full spectrum of issues relating to the economy, culture, national security and government integrity. Some key areas include taxation, spending, education, labor, licensure, regulation, environment, life, free speech, Second Amendment rights, foreign aid, defense priorities and global organizations, including the United Nations. All congressional and state analyses are conducted after the adjournment of a legislative session to ensure that no issue is neglected.

Each lawmaker is evaluated on a zero to 100 scale, with a score of 100 representing a voting record that is perfectly aligned with conservative principles. Officials who earn a score of 90% or higher are presented with the CLA’s highest honor, the Award for Conservative Excellence, while those who earn a score of 80% or higher, but less than 90%, are presented with the Award for Conservative Achievement. Additionally, any lawmaker who earns a score of 10% or lower qualifies for the ACU’s Coalition of the Radical Left.”

Metrics

• 105,000 bills evaluated annually
• 2,000 bills scored annually
• 8,000 lawmakers rated annually

“To determine legislative rankings, the CLA annually evaluates over 105,000 bills that were introduced in Congress and every convening state legislature running from January 1 to December 31. Of those bills, the CLA ultimately selects roughly 2,000 pieces of legislation that best illustrate how elected officials view the role of government in an individual’s life. The CLA calculates individual scores for a total of nearly 8,000 federal and state lawmakers based on over 157,000 votes cast on the 2,000 bills selected. The CLA provides a score for each legislative chamber, which is based upon the average scores of all members within that respective chamber. A legislature’s overall score is calculated by averaging each state’s two legislative chambers together in order to better reflect the differences in political power between the chambers. (The exception being Nebraska, the nation’s only unicameral legislature comprising a single legislative chamber, on which the state’s overall score was based.)”