Friday, July 11, 2014

Has Sen. Pat Roberts moved to the right in recent years?


In the July 7 issue of The Kansas City Star, reporter Steve Kraske wrote about how Republican "moderates" in Kansas are frustrated because they have the choice between two conservatives in the U.S. Senate primary race, i.e., Pat Roberts, the incumbent, and Milton Wolf, a Tea Party favorite.

"Dick Bond, the onetime president of the Kansas Senate from Johnson County, considers three-term incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts and finds him too far right'" Kraske wrote. "Roberts’ most serious challenger, tea party favorite Milton Wolf? Much the same.

"'I don’t even have a horse to ride,' Bond said."

"I’ll be doing something that I am not pleased with," said former Republican state Rep. Nancy Brown, a moderate. “I simply do not (plan to) vote for either one."

"[Roberts'] been a longtime friend, and obviously he has totally changed,” Bond said. “He drank some Kool-Aid or something."

Kraske reinforced Bond's claim that Roberts has changed by noting that "In 2013, the nonpartisan National Journal ranked Roberts as the eighth-most conservative senator. In 2005, he came in as the 38th-most conservative."

Of course, the National Journal is the same publication that ranked Barack Obama as the most liberal senator in 2007. At that time, many of Kraske's fellow liberals dismissed the ranking as ridiculous. In any case, note that Kraske cherry-picked two years out of the many years Roberts has served in the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. What happens if you consider all of Roberts' 18 years in the Senate?

The American Conservative Union ranks U.S. senators and representatives every year, with 100 being a perfect conservative score. ACU's website has Roberts' scores for every year he has been in the Senate except for 1997 and 2011. I have taken his scores for the available years and put together a chart, which you can view below:


As you can see, Roberts' ACU scores have been fairly consistent since 1998, with an 84 in 1998 and an 84 in 2013. In fact, he has appeared to have gotten slightly less conservative during recent years. His ACU lifetime rating was 87.05 in 2001, while it dropped to 86.40 in 2013.

According to Kraske, two of Roberts' actions "caused considerable angst among moderates":

One was his call last October for Kathleen Sebelius, then the secretary of Health and Human Services, to resign for “gross incompetence” in connection with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. The demand came just days after Wolf entered the race. Roberts and Sebelius had been friends, and Roberts spent 12 years as the top aide to 1st District U.S. Rep. Keith Sebelius, the father-in-law of the woman who went on to become governor and HHS secretary. 
“I know that made me uncomfortable,” Jones said. “I know the relationship between Pat and the Sebelius family.” 
The other action was Roberts’ opposition to a personal plea in 2012 from his mentor, former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, to back a United Nations treaty on the rights of people with disabilities. Dole said the treaty would require nothing of Americans but would spur help for disabled people around the globe. Even with Dole making a dramatic appearance on the floor of the Senate in a wheelchair, Roberts voted no.
The moderates often look back at Dole as a model senator. However, Dole's ACU scores would suggest that he is the Kansas senator who "totally changed" during his years in Washington. ACU does not have all of Dole's years available online, however Dole received a 53 in 1975, a 67 in 1980, a 76 in 1981, a 60 in 1982, and a 64 and in 1983. Dole's lowest score after 1983 was a 77 in 1987. During the 1990s, his lowest score was 83 (1990). His subsequent scores were 86 in 1991, 93 in 1992, 88 in 1993, 100 in 1994, and 90 in 1996.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article687490.html#storylink=cpy






Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article687490.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article687490.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article687490.html#storylink=cpy




Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article687490.html#storylink=cpy

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