Yesterday on "The Fix", a politics blog of the Washington Post, Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake wrote "Five Members to watch in the House debt ceiling vote." One of the five is Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT). He's described as a potential "yes" vote for Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) debt ceiling bill:
Matheson, a Democrat, has managed to keep his Republican-leaning Utah seat by voting very conservatively since being elected in 2000.
So let's see what The Fix considers voting not just conservatively, but very conservatively. Project Vote Smart collects ratings given by a wide variety of special-interest organizations. Matheson's record shows that for 2010 the American Conservative Union gave him a grade of 17 percent. The National Taxpayers Union assigned him a 39 percent and Citizens Against Government Waste awarded him an 11 percent. He did substantially better with the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, which gave him an 80 percent rating. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People determined he voted in their interests 75 percent of the time for the period 2009-2010, and the American Civil Liberties Union rated him at 56 percent for the same period.
The National Education Association gave him an A for his votes in 2009 through 2010 while the Human Rights Campaign ranked the Democrat at 78 percent. And for 2007-2008, the National Organization for Women evaluated Matheson at 94 percent.
That doesn't look to me like the record of of congressman who votes very conservatively. It does, however, provide yet another glimpse into the liberal mindset at The Washington Post.
