Also In This Issue Cover Story: What Kind Of Veep? · Just The Ticket? Why Kerry Chose Edwards

By Richard E. Cohen, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, July 9, 2004

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and his new running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., have voted remarkably the same on key issues before the Senate of late. But a look at their voting records over the course of their legislative careers shows that Edwards is the more moderate of the two.

[See a side-by-side comparison of the Kerry & Edwards voting records below.]

Last year, when Kerry and Edwards were trying to appeal to Democratic primary voters, they were among the most liberal members of their chamber, according to National Journal's annual congressional vote ratings. Kerry ranked as the No. 1 Senate liberal in 2003, while Edwards ranked No. 4, behind Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Paul Sarbanes, D-Md. But Kerry and Edwards, like other congressional Democrats who were seeking the presidency, missed many votes last year. Of the 62 Senate votes used to compute the 2003 ratings, Kerry was absent for 37 votes and Edwards missed 22.

NJ's ratings rank members of Congress on how they vote relative to each other on a conservative-to-liberal scale in each chamber. The scores, which have been compiled each year since 1981, are based on lawmakers' votes in three issue areas: economic policy, social policy, and foreign policy. (For an in-depth look at the all the 2003 vote ratings, click here.)

The bigger picture presents a more nuanced view of the two senators on the Democratic presidential ticket. Since joining the Senate in 1985, Kerry has compiled a "lifetime average" composite liberal score of 85.7 in NJ's vote ratings. Ten other current senators have a lifetime composite liberal score that is higher than Kerry's. Meanwhile, Edwards, who first joined the Senate in 1999, has a lifetime composite liberal score of 75.7, a number that puts him in the moderate wing of his party.

Edwards's voting record featured a considerably more centrist approach during his first four years -- when his audience was chiefly his home state of North Carolina -- than in 2003, after he decided to seek the Democratic presidential nomination and retire from the Senate. How he seeks to balance the embrace of national liberal groups, such as environmentalists and abortion-rights advocates, with his more moderate regional base looms as a potentially tricky challenge during the campaign.

From 1999 to 2002, Edwards had ranked among the more conservative Democratic senators. In 2002, only 11 of the 50 Senate Democrats voted more conservatively. But that voting pattern changed dramatically last year, when Edwards's ratings resulted in perfect liberal scores on economic and social issues; he failed to participate in the required majority of votes to receive a score on foreign-policy issues.

Although Edwards's scores have been relatively consistent in the three separate issue areas, he has shown traces of his presidential campaign's self-styled populism, which typically in U.S. history has featured a more liberal approach on economic issues than on social and foreign policy. Edwards's lifetime average scores have been more liberal than 76.2 percent of senators on economic issues, more liberal than 69.6 percent on social issues, and more liberal than 66.5 percent on foreign issues.

Kerry, by contrast, generally has ranked among the more liberal senators since he entered the Senate. During his first term, he earned perfect liberal scores in three years: 1986, 1988, and 1990. During his second and third Senate terms, Kerry voted more moderately, earning annual composite liberal scores ranging from 76.7 to 87.7.

Kerry's lifetime average has been more liberal than 83.9 percent of senators on economic issues, 81.7 percent on social issues, and 77.1 percent on foreign issues. During the campaign, Kerry has occasionally highlighted his more-moderate views on foreign policy.

Senate Voting Records
Composite Liberal Scores in National Journal's Annual Vote Ratings:

                 Kerry   Edwards   Highest Liberal
                                     Score That 
                                      Year Was:
1985              91.8      *           95.2           
1986              93.5      *           93.5           
1987              81.7      *           91.8           
1988              93.0      *           93.0           
1989              79.5      *           93.5           
1990              92.7      *           92.7           
1991              85.8      *           95.0           
1992              80.7      *           95.0           
1993              83.2      *           94.5           
1994              80.3      *           95.2           
1995              78.2      *           96.8           
1996              84.5      *           93.5           
1997              85.2      *           93.2           
1998              86.8      *           93.2           
1999              82.8     72.2         94.2           
2000              76.7     80.8         93.5           
2001              87.7     68.2         97.7           
2002              87.3     63.0         95.5           
2003              96.5     94.5         96.5           
Lifetime Average  85.7     75.7
                            * Not a member of the Senate 

Overall Rank Among All 100 Senators:

In... , __ Was the __ Most Liberal Senator
                 Kerry   Edwards
1999              16th     31st 
2000              23rd     19th 
2001              11th     35th 
2002               8th     40th 
2003               1st      4th

            * Based on composite liberal scores in National Journal's annual vote ratings 

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