Vote iQ politician profiles include Interest Group Ratings on specific topics. These ratings can help you decide where a politician stands and how they are perceived. Few of the groups that produce these ratings are objective. Rather they avowedly take a side and rank politicians by how faithful they are to the group's agenda.
The meters measure a broad range of issues, from abortion to national defense. One meter measures where members of Congress fall along a liberal-conservative spectrum. This rating is provided by a non-profit website, GovTrack.us, which bases its ranking on the basis of the bills the members sponsor or co-sponsor. Click here to read about GovTrack's metholodolgy.
The issues for which these ratings are given follow:
Pro Choice
- A strong rating represents support for Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision giving women the legal right to an abortion.
Pro Right to Life
- A strong rating represents opposition to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
Pro Animal Rights
- Strong ratings indicate support for measures protecting animals from abuse, saving endangered species, and providing habitat protection for wildlife.
Pro Animal Rights
- Strong ratings indicate support for measures protecting animals from abuse, saving endangered species, and providing habitat protection for wildlife.
Pro Business
- Strong ratings indicate support for measures that help business, such as improving infrastructure, lowering taxes, reducing the impact of regulations, and opposition to anti-growth policies.
Pro Lower Taxes
- A strong rating indicates support for lower taxes and smaller government.
Protect Civil Rights
- A strong rating indicates support for measures that ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens, regardless of nationality, gender or minority status.
Pro Civil Liberties
- A strong rating indicates support for measures protecting individual liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly.
Pro Conservative Issues
- These are key issues that conservative groups are commonly focused on. Some of these include national security, limited government, lower taxes, traditional values, right to life. Included in this category are conservative Christian groups.
Pro Liberal Issues
- These are key issues with which liberals are commonly concerned: poverty, health care for all Americans, civil rights, education, hunger, and steps to reduce what are believed to be the human causes of climate change.
Pro Public Education
- A strong rating reflects support for publicly funded schools and opposition to vouchers for private education.
Pro Clean Energy
- People who rate high in this category have supported energy reform to protect the quality of life and treasured environmental areas.
Environmental Protection
- A strong rating reflects support for conservation and wildlife protection and campaigns to rein in corporations that are guilty of causing pollution.
Pro Child Advocacy
- A strong rating in this category reflects support for legislation and efforts to improve the lives of children, particularly poor children in need of healthcare.
Pro Global Co-operation
- A strong reflects support for international law, the United Nations, the building of global alliances, and opposition to human rights violations and genocide.
Pro Arms Control
- Strong ratings reflect support for nuclear arms control agreements such as SALT and START.
Pro Gay & Lesbian
- Strong ratings reflect support campaigns giving gays and lesbians the same civil rights as heterosexuals.
Pro Balanced Budget
- Strong ratings reflect support for balanced budgets and alarm at our growing deficits.
Pro Gun Rights
- Strong ratings reflect support for the belief that the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the individual's right to bear arms.
Pro New Healthcare Law
- A strong rating reflects support for the Obama-backed healthcare reform law passed by Congress in 2010.
Pro Border Control
- A strong rating reflects support for measures to improve border security and stop illegal immigration.
Pro Unions
- A strong rating reflects support for the right of workers to join a union.
Pro Peace First
- A strong rating reflects support for the peaceful resolution of international conflicts and civil wars.
Pro National Security First
- A strong rating reflects conservative support for a strong military coupled with a suspicion of the usefulness of diplomacy.
Pro Technology
- A strong rating reflects support for a jobs agenda to drive innovation, corporate tax reform, increased broadband support and other issues to strengthen technology businesses.
Pro Senior Citizens
- A strong rating reflects support for measures that advance the interests of retirees and senior citizens.
Pro Social Justice
- A strong rating reflects support for legislation aimed at creating a just society and an even playing field for all people, rich or poor.
Pro Pot Reform
- A strong rating reflects support for the legalization of the use of marijuana.
Pro Veterans
- A strong rating reflects support for measures to help veterans, especially with regard to health issues.
Pro Women's Rights
- A strong rating reflects support for equal rights for women as well as other issues important to women: fair pay, global human rights for women, equality of insurance benefits, access to health care, and more.
Pro Affirmative Action
- A strong rating reflects support for equal rights for women as well as other issues important to women: fair pay, global human rights for women, equality of insurance benefits, access to health care, and more.
