Since 1971, the American Conservative Union (ACU), the nations oldest grassroots conservative organization, has annually graded members of Congress based on their votes on issues important to conservatives.
The ACU sees itself as the umbrella organization for conservatives in America.
The "ACU Ratings of Congress" include a wide variety of issues covering votes on taxes, wasteful government spending, cultural issues, defense and foreign policy.
Now that its 2015, the ACU latest scorecard shows how Florida congressmen and congresswomen and the two U.S. senators performed.
On the Republican side, most got above 50 percent. The top-ranking conservative in Florida was Congressman Ron DeSantis, who is running for U.S. Senate. He received 100 percent
Two were tied for second and both received 92 percent. They were Congressman Jeff Miller, who is also looking at a U.S. Senate run and Space Coast Congressman Bill Posey.
Third was a three-way tie: Receiving 80 percent were John Mica, Rich Nugent and Ted Yoho.
The lowest-ranking Republicans were Mario Diaz-Balart, David Jolly and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Diaz-Balart, who has served for 22 years, received a grade of 44 percent; Ros-Lehtinen, who scored 50 percent, has served for 26 years.
Jolly, whose name also has been touted as a Republican candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat, received only a 55 percent grade.
Of the two U.S. senators from Florida, Marco Rubio got a 96 percent; Democrat Bill Nelson got a 0 percent.
On the House Democrat side, there wasnt much to brag about. Most scored low.
Interestingly, liberal Congressman Alan Grayson received the highest percentage for the Democrats at 13 percent and congressman and candidate for U.S. Senate Patrick Murphy, who has been called a moderate Democrat, only received a "dismal" 4 percent, according to the ACU.
There are several takeaways from the ACUs 2014 Rating of Congress, said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp. First, the liberals in Congress tend to vote together as a block.
"The Left does a great job of enforcing lockstep orthodoxy, to the detriment of the constituents they represent. When it comes to passing real conservative reforms, its the Left, actually, that collectively obstructs implementation of common-sense economic, national security, and cultural reforms.
Ed Dean, a senior editor with SSN whose talk-show can be heard on radio stations across Florida, can be reached ated@sunshinestatenews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @eddeanradio.
