The 50th annual ratings of Congress by the venerable American Conservative Union Foundation Union Foundation (ACUF) show that Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. has now moved considerably to the left of her father Dick Cheney, who held the same at-large House seat from 1978-89.
Liz Cheney, in fact, is less conservative than the four Republicans who preceded her as the Cowboy State’s lone U.S. Representative.
Long considered the ”gold standard” for rating the conservatism of members of Congress, the ACUF ratings showed a similar leftward drift for Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski from the conservative record of her senator father.
With a lifetime ACUF rating of 78% after three terms, Cheney has a rating that is decidedly less conservative than her father (lifetime ACUF rating 91%), Barbara Cubin (lifetime ACUF rating: 96.12%), who held the seat from 1994-2008, and Cynthia Lummis (lifetime ACU rating: 94.29%), who served in the House from 2008-16 and was elected to the U.S. Senate last year.
Cheney is also far to the left of the late Craig Thomas, who was Republican congressman-at-large from 1989-94 and U.S. senator from 2000 to 2006. Thomas’ lifetime rating for both his House and Senate service was 91%.
Along with contrast between Rep. Cheney’s voting record and those of her predecessors, ACUF’s state legislative ratings also show that the congresswoman’s primary foes have compiled far more conservative records. State Sen. Anthony Bouchard is rated 88% for his time in the Legislature and State Rep. Chuck Gray has a lifetime ACUF rating of 87%.
Appointed to the Senate in 2002 when her father Frank Murkowski relinquished his seat to become governor of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski now has a lifetime ACUF rating of 56.98%. In contrast, her father completed 22 years in the Senate with a lifetime ACUF rating of 83%.
”ACU is the only group that scores every lawmaker in America on their votes every single year,” said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp.”We even score state lawmakers because we want voters to know who they are voting for, and whether those candidates defend the U.S. Constitution and remain faithful to the principles that make our country great. The beauty of our new website is that all of this information is now at your fingertips. Accountability for lawmakers has never been closer at hand than it is with our new site.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
Source: Newmax
