Magazine Rates Ohio’s Sherrod Brown as Fifth Most Liberal in the U.S. Senate

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

By the estimation of National Journal magazine – which attempts to rate every member of the U.S. Senate each year along a liberal to conservative continuum -  Ohio’s Sherrod Brown is no longer the “most liberal” member of the U.S. Senate.

Last year, the Democrat from Avon tied for “most liberal” with eight other U.S. Senators in the magazine’s ratings of 2010 votes. This year, its evaluation of 2011 votes put Brown in a five-way tie for fifth most liberal U.S. Senator with Democrats Barbara Boxer of California, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and Tom Udall of New Mexico.

The latest ratings still prompted the National Republican Senatorial Committee to proclaim Brown among the “most liberal” U.S. Senate members, and note his tie with the “far-left” Boxer. The group’s spokesman, Jahan Wilcox, said the rating shows “just how far out of step Sherrod Brown is with most Ohioans.”