GovTrackUS.com has a neat little feature where they show the “Ideology Score” of members of Congress (Senate, in this case) in a scatter plot diagram.
This score is based on sponsorship and co-sponsorship of bills, not the member’s voting record. It doesn’t even factor in the content of the bills – it simply plots ideology relative to the members who co-sponsor the same bills. Think of it as a “clique” analysis and a way to see who is “scratching the back” of a particular member.
While the X-axis plots the relative ideology of the member’s bills, the Y-axis plots the “leadership” score of the member. A higher leadership position means that a member had a higher number of other members co-sponsoring the bills they sponsored and shows whether a member is a “leader or a follower”.
Based on Jeanne Shaheen’s position on the diagram, she is described as a “rank and file Democrat”.
What I find interesting is who is “scratching Jeanne’s back”. I highlighted a couple of her more frightening neighbors, apparently members of her “clique”. Notice that Shaheen falls ideologically to the left of Harry Reid and Elizabeth “Lyawatha” Warren and that she’s also nearly aligned, both in ideology and leadership, with every gun-grabber’s hero, Dianne Feinstein.
If this doesn’t send shivers down your spine, you might be a Liberal and I suggest you seek medical (psychiatric) attention.
