How Liberal Was Obama as a State Senator in Illinois?
Obama [is] one of the more, but not the most, liberal Senators (just slightly to the left of Senator Clinton). . . . But what about Obama’s service in the Illinois General Assembly representing Hyde Park? How liberal was he then? So far, it’s been quite difficult to tell. Of course, both sides of the political debate have strong incentives to spin his record; the Democrats want to portray him as more centrist, the Republicans more liberal. . . . So what’s the truth? The answer: Obama as an Illinois state senator was very liberal, but there were others substantially more liberal still. Of all 295 incumbents who served from 1996-2004 in Illinois, State Senator Obama ranked in the 14th percentile on my liberalism scale. In the Democratic party, he ranked in the 27th percentile. Comparing Obama to all incumbent state legislators in the United States in the mid 1990s to the mid 2000’s, he was in the top 11th percentile.
Comments
Particularly in the US Senate, is a relative measure of liberalness appropriate? Obama seems to me to be about an Eisenhower Republican overall liberal-wise, but it seems likely that most Senators are more conservative than this
Posted by: BillCinSD | October 7, 2008 08:58 PM
I took a look at some w-nominate scores that I had from the Illinois Senate in 1999—and those scores indicate that Obama was in the top 10 most liberal state senators in Illinois, out of 60. How liberal depends in part on what cut-off point is used for vote variance, whether consent calendar bills are included, etc.
But of course, without knowing more about the issues and the other state senators, I’m not sure what I would make of that—it doesn’t seem that different from what one would expect, based on the campaign. The other Democrats with similar scores are generally classified as fairly mainstream moderate / liberal Democrats in media.
Posted by: Kate Bratton | October 8, 2008 09:12 PM