How Fred Thompson’s Senate Record Stacks Up

05/30/2007

By Greg Giroux,
CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY
Published: May 30, 2007

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson — now an all-but-announced candidate for the Republican presidential nomination — amassed a decidedly but not exclusively conservative voting record during his eight-year Senate tenure (1995-2002).

Earlier this year, when Thompson made it clear he was contemplating a 2008 White House bid, CQPolitics.com published a chart and analysis of Thompson’s positions on key votes. The chart, which can be accessed here, compares Thompson’s votes with those of three GOP senators who served with Thompson and who are running for president or weighing a bid — Sam Brownback of Kansas and John McCain of Arizona, who are announced candidates, and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who is still considering a presidential bid, possibly as an independent.

The CQPolitics.com analysis found that Thompson and McCain voted the same way on 83 of 102 CQ-defined “key votes” (81.4 percent) during the eight years the two men served together. Thompson agreed with Brownback on 57 of 70 votes (81.4 percent) and with Hagel on 57 of 71 votes (80.3 percent).

Thompson amassed an average score of 86 percent (out of a maximum 100) from the American Conservative Union (ACU), with scores ranging from 83 percent in 1995 to 92 percent in 2000. His average score is lower than that of Brownback (94 percent) and slightly higher than that of Hagel (85 percent) and McCain (82 percent).

Thompson sided with conservative groups and with most Republican senators in voting to cut taxes and spending; remove barriers among banking, securities and insurance companies; drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; protect gun owners’ rights; and oppose abortion.

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