The results reveal just how few members are committed to limited government principles — even those who represent conservative districts.
Overall, we have found that only four members from the 21 districts rated R+20 (Cook PVI) or above meet expectations (score 90); only 11 of those from the 56 districts rated R+15 or above meet expectations; only 14 of those from the 83 districts rated R+13 meet expectations; and only 19 of the 109 R+10 Republicans do.
Until now, precious little has been known about the voting habits and performance of individual members of Congress. There is also a false sense of security among many conservative activists that the House is run by the tea party, and that the only ideological problems we face stem from Senate Republicans.
The reality is that, as we show at ConservativeVotingRecords.com, there are only a few dozen consistent conservatives in the House, with another few dozen “second tier” conservatives. We are far from a conservative majority even within the House Conference, even after the “year of the tea party” in 2010. We have a lot of work to do in electing more conservatives, and the first step to success is realizing we have a problem. Thankfully, conservative activists are learning to look deeper into an official’s record, rather than blindly eating what they’re being fed.
The more conservative voters and activists are educated on the performance of their Republican officials, the more incentive those politicians will have to fulfill their campaign promises. ConservativeVotingRecords.com is just beginning, and we intend for it to grow into an indispensable tool to sharpen the knowledge of voters and the performance of Republican members of Congress.
Jim Ryun, a former member of Congress, is the chairman of the Madison Project.
