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Matt York/Associated Press Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, spoke Nov. 2 at an election night party in Phoenix.

In the ideological rankings of members of Congress that the National Journal released Thursday, one name stands out.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

Once a self-described “maverick” whose conservative ranking in the survey was among the lowest in the Senate, Mr. McCain this year tied with a handful of other Republican senators as the most conservative of all, according to a release provided to The Caucus by the National Journal.

The news organization ranked lawmakers on the ideological spectrum based on about 100 key votes in 2010. The annual survey assigns point values to the votes, and Republicans receive scores. The closer to 100, the more conservative they are.

Mr. McCain earned an 89.7, putting him in a tie with senators like Jim DeMint of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas and John Barrasso of Wyoming. No one scored higher than that in this year’s survey.

That contrasts with previous years, when Mr. McCain regularly ranked as somewhere near the 45th most conservative member of the Senate.

What happened?

Several things. The 2008 presidential campaign forced Mr. McCain to become the standard-bearer of the Republican party, rather than a member who could embrace contrary positions whenever he wanted.

Even as he was losing to Mr. Obama in late 2008, Mr. McCain appeared to embrace his new role. His anti-Democratic rhetoric on the stump sharpened considerably from those days when he ranked near the bottom of the conservative Senators.

And even after Mr. Obama assumed the presidency and Mr. McCain returned to the Senate, the senator from Arizona took up the mantle of opposition to the Democratic president, especially on issues of health care.

Finally, as he approached re-election, Mr. McCain was challenged by a Tea Party candidate who accused Mr. McCain of not being a conservative. Perhaps to prove that wrong, Mr. McCain appears to have changed his voting pattern.

Click here to see the entire 2010 list from the National Journal.

View the original article here

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