When constituencies change, ideologies change.
At least that is the conclusion of Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight, who charted the transformation five different GOP Senators from “blue or purple” states underwent after they transitioned from the lower to upper chamber.
Among those five Senators is Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, who also served in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005.
Enten used DW-Nominate scores to track each members’ ideology and compare it to their colleagues.
“Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania was in the 94th percentile for conservatism among House Republicans in the 108th Congress, but he dropped to the 57th percentile for conservatism among Senate Republicans in the 113th congress,” Enten writes.
The conclusion he draws is that since statewide electorates are more politically diverse than most congressional districts, elected officials will adapt to those new conditions.
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8 Responses
Oops, PAT you seem to be loosing your balance, you need to lean a little more RIGHT.
Thank you Sen Toomey. Great job for being a grown up in the Senate!
He has not transformed at all, he’s a right wing ideologue who attempts to portray himself as a champion of the people. Don’t be fooled, he’s hiding his true self going into the 2016 election.
Not a transformation…more like subterfuge.
Did it also study Senators who got elected then hid in DC for six years, hardly ever surfacing to remind their home state that they actually exist? Toomey has used his office as the world’s most comfortable hideout, enjoying the perks of power without ever once showing any evidence that he has been working to protect or enhance the lives of the people he represents. The people of Pennsylvania need to vote this fraud out of office — it’s just a shame they need to wait two years to do it.
This right-wing nutjob doesn’t have a prayer. He is against giving workers a fair wage, wants to put women in back alleys to have abortions, wants to burn gays at the stake, meanwhile he loves stuffing legislation with goodies for his old Wall Street pals. He proved himself to be a joke on the Super Duper Committee, they didn’t do jack. He tried to take the lead on gun reforms and even with the tail winds of children getting executed in cold blood at his back he couldn’t even get that done.
Let’s see if Sen Toomey is the author of tax reform in this session that will benefit all of the people and show the people of PA that he is still a conservative. For the last 4 years too many votes were just no votes that were to show that he was against the Obama spending. Never got to vote on a bill that had a positive idea at it’s core.
he is still so far to the right he makes Nixon look like a liberal