National Journal Agrees: Perriello’s a centrist.

Posted byWaldo Jaquith 3 Comments on National Journal Agrees: Perriello’s a centrist.

National Journal’s annual congressional vote rankings are out, and I think it’s interesting that all of their math has simply confirmed what GovTrack.us already demonstrated: that Rep. Tom Perriello is a solidly centrist member of congress. He votes more liberally 47.2% of the time, and conservatively 52.8% of the time. In fact, as it turns out, if you simply wanted to apply a dichotomous label to him, “conservative” would be the necessary word. Every other congressman in Virginia is way out in the wings (Eric Cantor, 88th percentile of the conservatives; Bobby Scott, 83rd percentile of the liberals; Bob Goodlatte, 85th percentile of the conservatives; Gerry Connolly, 72nd percentile of the liberals, etc.), with two exceptions: Glenn Nye votes are in the 55th percentile of conservatives, and Rick Boucher is in the 55th percentile of liberals.

So when you hear Republicans claim that Boucher or Perriello (or Nye) take marching orders from Nancy Pelosi or vote lockstep with Democrats, this is how you can know that they’re either ignorant or liars.

02/27 Update: I’ve changed a few words here to reflect the actual methodology used in the analysis. See my comment for details.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

3 replies on “National Journal Agrees: Perriello’s a centrist.”

  1. Given the 5th districts right leaning ways – a fifty fifty split is liberal. This area can still say that Perriello isn’t conservative enough and simply point to Cantor votes as what they are looking for. That will be the case until the primary is over, to be sure.

  2. Oh, sure, I don’t mean to assert that conservative is without its shades of gray. :) If Congressman Perriello was as conservative as teabaggers want, then Democrats wouldn’t want anything to do with him. :)

  3. I originally wrote in this blog entry:

    He votes with liberals 47.2% of the time, with conservatives 52.8% of the time. In fact, as it turns out, if you simply wanted to apply a dichotomous label to him, “conservative” would be the necessary word. Every other congressman in Virginia is way out in the wings (Eric Cantor, 88% conservative; Bobby Scott, 83% liberal; Bob Goodlatte, 85% conservative, Gerry Connolly 72% liberal, etc.), with two exceptions: Glenn Nye is 55% conservative, and Rick Boucher is 55% liberal.

    That’s not an accurate way to put it. The National Journal explains that their rankings work like this:

    The liberal percentile score means that the member voted more liberal than that percentage of his or her colleagues in that issue area in 2009. The conservative figure means that the member voted more conservative than that percentage of his or her colleagues.

    For example, a House member in the 30th percentile of liberals and the 60th percentile of conservatives on economic issues voted more liberal than 30 percent of the House and more conservative than 60 percent of the House on those issues, and was tied with the remaining 10 percent. The scores do not mean that the member voted liberal 30 percent of the time and voted conservative 60 percent of the time.

    Which is to say that, as I presented it, is precisely what they said that it does not mean. While an important methodological distinction, this doesn’t actually change my thesis or conclusion. Thanks to reader L.F. for pointing that out!

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