How Conservative is Scott Brown?

Written by David Frum on Friday January 15, 2010

At Nate Silver's site, Andrew Gelman quotes research arguing that Brown is not only more liberal than was Dede Scozzafava - but is also more liberal than most Massachusetts Republicans. Of course, he's still a lot more conservative than his opponent - and so well deserving of your vote or donations.

At Nate Silver's site, Andrew Gelman quotes Boris Shor's research arguing that Brown is not only more liberal than was Dede Scozzafava - but is also more liberal than most Massachusetts Republicans. Of course, he's still a lot more conservative than his opponent - and so well deserving of your vote or donations.

I use the entirety of state legislative voting records across the country, and I make them comparable by calibrating them through Project Votesmart’s candidate surveys.

By doing so, I can estimate Brown’s ideological score very precisely.  It turns out that his score is –0.17, compared with her score of 0.02. Liberals have lower scores; conservatives higher ones. Brown’s score puts him at the 34th percentile of his party in Massachusetts over the 1995-2006 time period. In other words, two thirds of other Massachusetts Republican state legislators were more conservative than he was. This is evidence for my [Boris's] claim that he’s a liberal even in his own party. What’s remarkable about this is the fact that Massachusetts Republicans are the most, or nearly the most, liberal Republicans span style="color: #000000;">in the entire country<!

Of course, while the Republicans [in Massachusetts] are liberal, Democrats are incredibly liberal. In comparison to them, Brown is a conservative. He was also the most conservative of the tiny handful of Republican State Senators.

Perhaps the most important context in which Brown can be considered a conservative is the electoral one. We’re talking about Massachusetts here, one of the most liberal states in the country, delivering 62% of the vote for Barack Obama, in comparison to 36% of the vote for John McCain. And as liberal as Brown may be, he’d be far more conservative than Edward Kennedy (-.92), or Martha Coakley (no score as she has never been a legislator, nor has she filled out the Votesmart survey – but ACORN has given her its top rating). . . .

Categories: FF Spotlight News