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politics and politicians Title: Scott Walker's legislative years: A staunch conservative, then as now It has been 13 years since Gov. Scott Walker left the Wisconsin Assembly, but his time there represents the longest chapter of his career. What does it tell us about the politics of a man who has soared to the front tier of the Republican presidential field? Walker was among the most conservative members of the Legislature while he served, according to the research of two political scientists who have measured the ideology of more than 20,000 past and current state lawmakers across the country. According to their data, Walker was more conservative than close to 90% of his Assembly colleagues in Wisconsin and about four-fifths of his fellow Republicans. He wasn&rrsquo;t the state’s most conservative legislator. But he was to the right of most members of his own party. Putting Walker in broader context, he was more conservative than 86% of the roughly 7,400 state lawmakers in the nation during his final year in the Assembly, according to the numbers. These rankings are just one window into Walker’s legislative career, which stretched from 1993 to 2002. The Journal Sentinel will be reporting in detail about the bills he worked on and the votes he cast. But the ideological rankings help put his political identity in context as he prepares for a presidential run and faces voters outside Wisconsin who know relatively little about him. Walker’s ideology back then appears broadly in keeping with his ideology today. It is fair to say that Walker is the most conservative governor Wisconsin has had in decades. “Lots of research tells us that ‘politicians die in their ideological boots,’ ” says Boris Shor, visiting assistant professor at Georgetown University, who along with Nolan McCarty of Princeton produced the data used in this story, known as the American Legislatures project. “They don't change their stripes, even across long careers. That doesn't mean that's true of everybody, just that it’s overwhelmingly so.” The ratings compiled by Shor and McCarty are based on how often lawmakers side with each of their conservative, moderate and liberal colleagues over the course of hundreds or even thousands of roll call votes. These voting patterns are used to produce a single score for each legislator’s career. The more often conservatives on the right side of the spectrum vote with like-minded colleagues, the higher their conservative score. The more often liberals on the left side of the spectrum vote with like-minded colleagues, the higher their liberal score. Political scientists have been using a similar system for years to measure the ideology of members of Congress. Here is some added perspective on Walker, based on the data: Walker's ideological ranking. Walker was either the 10th or 11th most conservative member of the 99-seat Wisconsin Assembly, depending on the year. How did he compare to some other high-profile Wisconsin politicians he served with? Madison Democrat Tammy Baldwin, now a U.S. Senator, was the most liberal member of the Assembly in the years before her election to Congress in 1998, according to these ratings. Milwaukee Democrat Gwen Moore, now a member of the U.S. House, was the seventh, eighth or ninth most liberal member of the 33-seat state Senate, depending on the year. Republican Glenn Grothman, who was elected to Congress last fall from Campbellsport, had a rating almost identical to Walker’s (but slightly more conservative) when they were together in the Assembly. Walker was to the right of former colleague Scott Jensen, the Assembly speaker from 1995 to 2002, but to the left of former colleague Jeff Fitzgerald, who served as speaker from 2011 to 2012. Walker and the GOP field. The legislative ratings don’t offer direct comparisons between Walker and most of the other presidential hopefuls in his party. But there is one exception to that. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is the only other major figure in the likely Republican field that served as a state legislator in the past 20 years. Walker is clearly to Rubio’s right, based on the Shor and McCarty ratings. In 2002, for instance, Rubio was more conservative than 69% of the state lawmakers in the country; Walker was more conservative than 86%. While Rubio was to the right of most GOP lawmakers in Florida, Florida Republicans as a group were less conservative than Wisconsin Republicans. Walker compared to today's GOP legislators. Walker’s ranking would be different if he were the same legislator serving today. As in many states, Republicans have grown more conservative and Democrats more liberal in Wisconsin, producing a more polarized Legislature. In 2013 (the most recent ratings), there were 19 Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly with more conservative ratings than Walker’s career score — about twice as many as when Walker served. The governor was asked in a recent interview with the Journal Sentinel whether he thought his legislative years were a good guide to his politics. “They’re important. But I think if you look at even where I was a decade ago as county executive, (it) isn’t where I am today on every single issue. I think each step along the way you learn different things. (But) there’s certain foundational things” that remain constant, Walker said. Some presidential candidates in modern times have gone through well- documented ideological changes. Walker has been very much on the right side of the GOP spectrum throughout his career. That’s reflected in these legislative ratings, in his record as governor and in a variety of other ideological rankings used by analysts (with some examples here and here). It’s also reflected in the perceptions of GOP voters. As governor, Walker has a 95% positive rating from “very conservative” Republicans across three years of polling in this state by the Marquette University Law School. In early presidential polls outside Wisconsin, he gets his best ratings from the most conservative GOP voters. And it’s one reason why, when he appeared Thursday and Friday with other GOP hopefuls at the massive annual gathering of conservative activists known as CPAC, he was easily one of the stars of the show.
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#1. To: Gatlin (#0)
I've suggested before that conservatives should consider that they have to unite behind a candidate like Walker early on to fend off the attempt of the northeastern liberal wing and the CoC types to foist Bush or Christie on the party as the 2016 nominee. Given how John Bush is strongarming the party's professional consultants and managers to work for him exclusively or they'll pay for it later, these Bush elements are going to steamroll the grassroots if they spend 2015 playing candidate-of-the-week until they dither themselves into losing the nomination to their most undesired candidate that is supported by the GOP Beltway elite. Someone like McCain or Romney or Bush. The party elite isn't playing games. They're moving fast. If the grassroots Republicans think they have all kinds of time to dawdle and flirt with a lot of candidates like some debutante arranging her dance card at a cotillion, they're gravely mistaken and will find themselves facing the juggernaut of John Ellis Bush.
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