Ohio is proud to be home to ....

Cleveland now has one less thing to be miserable about. National Journal’s annual ranking of U.S. Senators and Congresspersons from the most liberal to the most conservative just came out. Ohio — and Northeast Ohio — is home to the No. 1 most liberal Senator, according to their figuring. Congratulations, Sherrod Brown! So those ads the Republicans ran against him in 2006 when he was running for the seat, claiming he was then the “most liberal” member of the House, are true. Apparently, that doesn’t matter so much to Ohioans, since they elected him anyway.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2009voteratings

Here’s how they figure:
”A panel of National Journal editors and reporters initially compiled a list of 196 key congressional roll-call votes for 2009 -- 99 votes for the Senate and 97 for the House -- and classified them as relating to economic, social, or foreign policy. The ratings system was first devised in 1981 under the direction of Bill Schneider, a political analyst and commentator, and a contributing editor to National Journal.”

Our other Senator, George Voinovich, finished in the middle of the pack, ranked No. 62. That makes him a liberal among Republicans, with only Maine’s Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Indiana’s Richard Lugar ranking more liberal.

As for the House, Marcia Fudge was the 12th most liberal, followed in order by Betty Sutton at 35, Mary Jo Kilroy at 60, Tim Ryan at 143, Kucinich at 160, Marcy Kaptur at 171, Steve Dreihaus at 190, Charlie Wilson at 192, Zach Space at 224 and John Boccieri at 224 — all Democrats.

Then come the Republican with Steve LaTourette unsurprisingly at the liberal end among his colleagues at 262. Mike Turner was at 277, Pat Tiberi at 299, Steve Austria at 314, Jean Schmidt at 318, Bob Latta at 404, Jim Jordan at 411, John Boehner as minority leader holding the conservative line at 417.