How Did Minnesota’s Members of Congress Vote in 2006?

The National Journal has released its yearly vote ratings, which score key Congressional votes on a continuum of liberal and conservative and assign a percentage to each member of Congress. For instance, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., has an 87.7 percent more liberal voting record than other members of Congress, whereas 2nd District Republican John Kline has an 80.3 percent more conservative voting record than other members of Congress. Since 1981, the ratings have ranked members of Congress on economic issues, social issues, and foreign policy.

Here’s how Minnesota’s delegation stacked up:

While it gives some idea of voting ideology, the percentile ranking can make some members of Congress seem more moderate than they actually are. According to MyDD:

It’s worth noting that because the National Journal rankings deal in percentiles rather than hard numbers, a particular Senator might appear more moderate than he or she deserves credit for. For instance, Norm Coleman’s 53.8 conservative score would seem to put him not too far out of line with his Minnesota constituents, but a gander at his party unity and presidential support scores — 77 and 88, respectively — paints a different picture: one of a Senator too beholden to his party’s leadership. Similarly, Susan Collins comes off well in the National Journal rankings with a score that actually places her in the left half of the Senate, but her party unity (66) and presidential support (79) scores indicates she’s not quite the centrist maverick you might assume she is.