The ‘Mendoza Line’ for southern Democrats

LaGrange College Political Science professor John Tures has an interesting post over at the Southern Political Report, writing about a “Mendoza Line” for southern Democrats.

Tures writes:

In 2002, I had my research methods class gather data to test the argument whether Georgia Democrat Max Cleland really was “too liberal” for the Peach State. Using statistics on the American Conservative Union (ACU) voting record of Georgia legislators, we found that he was comparatively more liberal. Of course, at the time of our test, few felt he would actually lose.

Tures says that southern Democrats need at least a 20 percent ACU rating in order to survive their reelections.

But that also means some southern Democrats should be looking to boost their conservative record before reelection, he alleges.

If that “Mendoza Line” does exist, than a number of Southern Democrats should be concerned for the coming years. Lincoln is now down to 18.7 lifetime as of the most recent ACU rating. Newcomers from 2006, such as Missouri’s Claire McCaskill (14) and Virginia’s Jim Webb (12) sport ratings below that line. All three (and other newcomers like North Carolina’s Kay Hagen) may wish to rethink their liberal voting trends, to avoid Max Cleland’s fate.