Senator Joe Donnelly’s 2017 American Conservative Union score was zero. His 2016 score was 12. But that didn’t stop the New York Times on Monday from trying to spin the Democrat as a “moderate” centrist.” Meanwhile, Donnelly’s Republican opponent appeals to the “conservatives.” The headline for the Michael Tackett story warned, “Indiana Democrat Tests If Centrism Still Appeals.”

The online version fretted, “Joe Donnelly Runs to the Middle and Tries to Not Get Run Over.” Tackett identified Donnelly as the very model of moderation: “Senator Joe Donnelly is standing in the most dangerous place in American politics: the middle of the road.” He sympathized:

Mr. Donnelly, a Democrat from Indiana, is staking his re-election on a contrarian proposition that in a highly polarized era, there are still enough voters who believe in moderation to give him a second term.

It’s not until six paragraphs in that readers learned:

But he also voted against Mr. Trump’s tax cuts, against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and, most recently, against the confirmation of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

As noted earlier, here’s how the American Conservative Union scored the Senator in recent years: 2017: 0. 2016: 12. 2015: 17. 2014: 12. It’s true that his lifetime score over 11 years is a higher 23. But the Democrat has been drifting leftward. His Planned Parenthood score is a respectable 68 (if you’re an abortion-supporting liberal).

His grade from the left-wing National Education Association is an A. His grade from the NRA is a D.

What do all these non-moderate sounding stats mean? Well, according to the Times, Donnelly’s opponent Mike Braun, is “firmly aligned with President Trump and is hurling insults in fine Trumpian fashion.” Tackett argued that it’s the Republicans who “aren’t obliging” with the whole moderation thing:

While Mr. Donnelly talks of being bipartisan, Republicans are not obliging. ... Mr. Braun is making no virtue of bipartisanship. He defeated two Republican House members, Luke Messer and Todd Rokita, in the Senate primary, which in many ways was a contest of which man was the more enthusiastic backer of the president.

Generally, the liberal New York Times doesn’t have much use for so-called moderate Democrats. But given that the Democratic Party’s hopes of reclaiming the Senate are fading, and Donnelly is clinging to a three point lead, it’s easy to see why the paper is going to bat for him.

