Photo courtesy of Sen. Sherrod Brown's office

Where does your Congress member stand?

By Stephen Koff, cleveland.com

June 14, 2017

Ohio is home to Jim Jordan, shown here on the left, a U.S. House of Representatives member who is about as true blue, regulation-cutting, government-off-our-backs and Tea Party as they come. Yet it is home to the proud progressive, pro-labor, pro-government-safety-net Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, center.

And befitting its reputation as a moderate swing state, it has politicians like Sen. Rob Portman, right -- whose place in this story might surprise you.

On the conservative-to-liberal spectrum, where do all the Ohioans in Congress stand?

Using an average of interest group ratings for their House or Senate votes from 2013 through 2016, we'll tell you. We'll fill you in a bit on who they are and on their districts, too. Our methodology for the ranking is explained at the bottom, but one thing to know at the top is this: If every Republican opposes abortion rights and says he wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, the differences among them come down to gradation and other, less divisive issues.

Let's start at the most conservative end of the dial -- with Number 1 being most conservative, Number 18 the least -- and therefore with the Republicans, since they represent a majority of Ohioans in Congress.

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Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

1. Jim Jordan

Rep. Jim Jordan is arguably the best representative of Tea Party Republicanism in the U.S. House -- politically and sartorially. He co-founded the House Freedom Caucus, whose members are typically more conservative than other House Republicans, says the Pew Research Center, and whose influence is felt when members vote as a bloc. This was seen most recently when the caucus temporarily helped block passage of the American Health Care Act, although the caucus compromised later.

Stylistically, Jordan, a former college wrestling champion and wrestling coach, is known for a shirt-and-khakis look that let's you know he's not of the country club set -- and doesn't aspire to be. When decorum demands a suit coat he'll put one on, but his tendency to carry it rather than wear it has spawned a Twitter page dedicated to, simply, Jim Jordan's jacket.

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Jordan's district

Jordan has an oddly shaped, sprawling district -- Ohio's 4th Congressional District -- running from small towns and farmland west of Columbus all the way to exurbs of Cleveland. Like with other districts, Ohio Republicans drew it to protect their political interests.

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Jordan's ratings

To FreedomWorks, a political interest group allied with the Tea Party, Congress members don't get much better than Jordan. Jordan is a strong proponent of limited government, individual liberty and lower taxes. Through his membership on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, he can come across as a prosecutor for the conservative cause.

But for reasons we'll explain later, let's look at some other scores for Jordan, which we averaged over the last two full sessions of Congress:

American Conservative Union: 100.

Heritage Action: 92.5

Additional factors. The anti-tax Club for Growth gave Jordan a 99 for his votes in 2016 (and a 98 lifetime average). The social issues-focused Family Research Council consistently gives Jordan scores of 100. And, from a different perspective: The AFL-CIO gives Jordan the lowest lifetime score of all the congressional Ohioans: 3.

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Al Behrman, Associated Press

2. Steve Chabot

Back when it was easier to slip pork into bills, Steve Chabot would infuriate middle-ground Cincinnati Republicans. A former teacher who put himself through law school at night, Chabot didn't like treating spending bills as if they were treats for a Christmas stocking. That meant others had to stuff in the goodies that local interests sought.

He was a fiscal conservative before it became a fashion, and he came up through politics the old way: one local office after another, standing on street corners with a campaign sign. He lost election in 2008 to a Democrat, Steve Driehaus, but his time out was short. Chabot won back his seat in the next election.

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Chabot's district

Since Ohio's 1st Congressional District is based around Cincinnati, you'd think the politics of Cincinnati, a Democratic city, would be inextricably tied to Chabot. They are not.

That's because the surrounding parts of Hamilton County and the exurbs, particularly Warren County, vote Republican. Ohio Republicans redrew the district after the 2010 census in a way that gave an advantage to Chabot, who every ten years seems to face changing political demographics. See the thin strip of land connecting the two big geographic blocks? It's one of Ohio's wealthiest areas, and its inclusion was quite the gift to Chabot.

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Al Behrman, Associated Press

Chabot's ratings

The American Conservative Union's four-year average for Chabot comes to 94. Heritage Action's comes to 81. In the current Congress, FreedomWorks gives Chabot a 92, which for a Tea Party group is fairly close to stellar, though not perfect.

So where did he go wrong -- if "wrong" means he wasn't quite conservative enough for the folks filling out report cards?

Chabot lost points in the the last Congress by voting to provide more money for veterans care, which Heritage Action said didn't do enough to counter VA's systemic failures. And he supported more spending to train doctors at children's hospitals, which fiscal conservatives said was inconsistent with getting the nation on a path to fiscal balance.

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J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

3. Brad Wenstrup

As the Tea Party ascended politically, so did a Cincinnati podiatrist and Iraq War veteran named Brad Wenstrup. He even managed to beat another deeply conservative Republican, then- Rep. Jean Schmidt, in a 2012 primary.

Both held limited-government views, but Wenstrup wasn't as abrasive -- and Schmidt had made the mistake of voting to raise the federal debt ceiling.

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Wenstrup's district

Ohio's Second Congressional District starts on Cincinnati's east side but stretches all the way to Portsmouth, hugging the Ohio River and reaching as far north as Chillicothe.

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Al Behrman, Associated Press

Wenstrup's ratings

Wenstrup's four-year average from the American Conservative Union comes to 91, and he has earned a 78 average from Heritage Action for those years.

He'd be higher if not for voting to give fast-track trade authority to the president, and voting for spending and budget bills fiscal purists opposed. But to give Wenstrup props from a different standard (if it happens to be yours): His most recent AFL-CIO rating was 0, and his lifetime AFL-CIO rating is 4.

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John Minchillo, Associated Press

4. Warren Davidson

Warren who?

The newcomer status of Warren Davidson, elected to the House of Representatives in a special election in 2016, gives him little clout in leadership ranks. But what he represents gives him a voice. And based on his votes in Congress so far, he should wind up higher in the conservative ratings in short order.

Davidson is a former township trustee, Army Ranger and West Point grad with little government experience, but with a message: He is for a lot of things the old establishment is against. That establishment once was embodied by John Boehner, the former speaker of the House, whom Davidson succeeded with an improbable win after Boehner resigned.

The Cincinnati Enquirer said Davidson "is, in some ways, the anti-Boehner."

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Davidson's district

Davidson represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District, straddling the state border with Indiana from Cincinnati's northern suburbs to just south of Celina. Cities in the district include Hamilton, Middletown and Springfield.

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Susan Walsh, Associated Press

Davidson's ratings

How hardcore conservative is Davidson?

He has said the veterans healthcare system needs to kick out the "moochers" clogging it up." He wants to curtail the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He wants to cut regulations. He has said on Facebook, "We didn't come here to take orders from a central planner. We came here to represent our districts."

But his limited record creates a challenge in ranking him. We purposely chose a four-year window for purposes of this story; anything shorter might not be representative, and ratings from long ago may no longer reflect a politician's evolution.

So about Davidson: In his limited time last year, he earned a 86 percent rating from Heritage Action. So far this year, he's off to a perfect start in the eyes of FreedomWorks. And because FreedomWorks measured a slightly different set of votes, it gave Davidson a 100 for last year, too.

Yet the American Conservative Union didn't rate him in 2016 because he didn't serve the full term it was assessing. Based on all of this, you can assume that Davidson will give Wenstrup, Chabot and even Jordan a run in the ratings game eventually. But because of his limited time and ratings so far, we are placing him 4th on the scale of conservatives -- but as they say in the record industry, 4th with a bullet.

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Rick Osentoski, Associated Press

5. Bob Latta

True story: A few years back, a reporter covering a statewide political race unrelated to Bob Latta happened to be in the small city of Findlay. The reporter had some extra time so he stopped in the local Democratic Party offices and chatted with a volunteer. "Who do you have running in the congressional race against Bob Latta?" the reporter asked. The Democratic volunteer had no idea -- and it was within weeks of the election.

This is the perk Latta enjoys. It helps explain why in his last election, he got 71 percent of all votes in the district, the second-highest share of a Congress member statewide. (We'll tell you about the first-highest as we get to the liberals. Hint: She's from Northeast Ohio.)

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Latta's district

Ohio's 5th Congressional District reaches the southern suburbs of Toledo, and it includes Bowling Green, a college town. That means Latta is not immune to an occasional protest from Democrats. But as a 10-year incumbent, he has yet to have a serious challenge, and the GOP majority district helps.

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Zach Gibson, Associated Press

Latta's ratings

While Heritage Action's four-year average for Latta comes only to 67.5, the American Conservative Union's comes to 86. His scores, like those for a number of Republicans who will follow (and for a majority of Republicans, in fact), reflect the realities of Congress members who must reconcile ideological leanings with priorities from constituents.

Latta lost points among purists, but likely won gratitude from his voters, by voting for more medical-research spending (critics said the bill was unaffordable); for supporting spending on transportation and backing the Export-Import Bank, and for continuing farm subsidies.

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Mark Duncan, Associated Press

6. Bob Gibbs

Why did the hog farmer come to Congress?

For Bob Gibbs, it's not a chicken-crosses-road riddle. His position for six years as chairman of a water-resources-and-environment subcommittee in the House of Representatives put him at the intersection of two important issues in rural Ohio. One was stewardship of farmland and waterways. The other was regulation of those resources.

Gibbs used to rail at President Barack Obama's land-and-water regulations, saying they made it hard for farmers and rural businesses to survive. Even though Gibbs' chairmanship gig had to end this year because of term limits, he is still a member of the panel, and of the House Agriculture Committee, too. Watching the Trump White House roll back the rules, and playing a role as the GOP tries to shape a new regulatory environment, has made these satisfying times.

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Gibbs' district

Gibbs' base is Holmes County, including a stretch of Amish country between Canton and New Philadelphia. But his district, Ohio's 7th, also touches on areas in or near Mansfield, Medina and the outskirts of exurban Cleveland including North Ridgeville and Avon.

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Harry Hamburg, Associated Press

Gibbs' ratings

Gibbs does well in the eyes of FreedomWorks, the Tea Party-affiliated group. But so do the Republicans with slightly higher rankings here. And when you look at four-year averages from other groups, his score goes down: 80.75 from the American Conservative Union, and 60 from Heritage Action.

Why 60?

Gibbs supported EPA grants (Heritage wanted to get rid of them) and spending on energy and water projects, education and highways.

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Mark Duncan, Associated Press

7. Jim Renacci

When the government gets behind an auto industry restructuring and bailout that puts some car dealers out of business, a car dealer can fight back, complain or do something about the government. Jim Renacci, an accountant, businessman and former mayor of Wadsworth, did all three. The former Chevrolet dealer ran for Congress in 2010 and won.

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Renacci's district

If congressional district maps were a Rorschach test, what would the 16th Congressional District remind you of? Perhaps an anvil with a smokestack rising from the north?

That smokestack takes Renacci to a number of Cleveland suburbs including Westlake, North Olmsted and Parma. But he's also got plenty of farmers to represent between North Canton and Wooster.

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Tom E. Puskar, Associated Press

Renacci's ratings

Renacci knocked off a Democratic incumbent, John Boccieri, to win his seat, then had to take on another Democratic incumbent, Betty Sutton, when remapping put them in the same district. (He won.) He's had his share of campaign scrimmages, in other words, and his challengers portrayed him as a deeply conservative Republican. His distrust of big government and dislike of Obamacare make him sound that way, too.

Yet Heritage Action gave him only a 64 percent favorable rating in the 2015-2016 Congress -- and an even lower score of 55 on the Congress of 2013-2014.

He voted for an amendment to add sexual orientation and gender identity in federal hiring rules prohibiting discrimination. He supported some federal spending bills, and voted for Amtrak reauthorization and for giving President Barack Obama trade promotion authority.

But if that sounds awfully liberal, don't worry. FreedomWorks so far this year has given Renacci a 92 percent favorable rating. You'll probably hear about that as Renacci turns to a different race in 2018 -- to be Ohio governor.

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J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

8. Bill Johnson

For a congressman from rural Ohio, Rep. Bill Johnson's recent esteem in the eyes of certain conservatives might seem surprisingly low, as you'll see. Johnson represents some of the hardest-pressed areas in Ohio's economy, along the Ohio River and up its coal corridor. While he criticizes federal energy and environmental regulations as extreme and cheers President Donald Trump's rollbacks, he also votes to spend federal money on government grants and spending bills.

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Johnson's district

Johnson's district, Ohio's 7th, hugs the Ohio River on the state's southeastern boundary. It includes the Wayne National Forest and Lucasville, continuing north and nearly touching Zanesville before ending just below Youngstown.

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Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press

Johnson's ratings

Johnson has had an interesting record lately. He stood right beside Trump when the president signed an order rolling back regulations on coal (that's Johnson in the white shirt and criss-cross tie). He represents an area personified in the presidential campaign by men and women in coveralls and hard hats -- the people Trump said had been left behind.

Yet Johnson pleased Heritage Action less than half the time in the last Congress, earning a score of 47 percent, and got a score of 53 in the one before that.

The seeming disconnect comes down to what the government does and doesn't do best. Johnson's votes portray a lawmaker who seems to sees a role for government -- just not as big a role as Democrats want, and not as little as the Tea Party prefers.

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John Minchillo, Associated Press

9. Pat Tiberi

Pat Tiberi may be the perfect representative for middle Ohio. He's not too conservative. He's not too liberal. Perfection, however, is a judgment best left to others, and Tiberi will be known as having a role in crafting the recent American Health Care Act, the House bill to repeal Obamacare. It has become a punching bag for criticism, and even some Republican senators -- and Ohio Gov. John Kasich -- don't want it.

Tiberi defends the bill as a necessary step toward ending what he sees as the egregious overreach of Obamacare.

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Tiberi's district

A bit like a misshapen "C" (or, if you reduce the image, a sitting fox), Tiberi's district, Ohio's 12th, includes the affluent north suburbs of Columbus, including Delaware County, and goes north to Mansfield and east to Zanesville.

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Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

Tiberi's ratings

The American Conservative Union's scores for the last four years work out to an average of 64.75 for Tiberi. Heritage Action, however, gives him a lower rating of 52.5.

That's partly because Tiberi voted for such bills as the 21st Century Cures Act, which boosted funding for medical research. Tiberi chairs a House health care subcommittee. Heritage said the bill was unaffordable and added yet another new form of mandatory spending.

Tiberi also broke with hardliners in supporting several spending bills and in backing the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reauthorized education programs -- falling "well short in rolling back federal interventions in education," Heritage Action said of the bill.

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J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

10. Steve Stivers

What is Steve Stivers, from suburban Columbus, doing so far down this list -- this far down for a conservative, that is, and for someone who happens to chair the National Republican Congressional Committee, in charge of helping other Republicans win office?

Stivers is a guy who once said that "you could eliminate the departments of Agriculture, Education, Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy and others and return to a constitutionally pure government."

But Stivers also is a guy who more recently came out opposing Trump's request to end funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Stivers' district

Stivers' district circles the Columbus suburbs to the north, south and west, then drops down to Athens and southeastern Ohio. That gives him an assortment of affluent suburban residents as well as liberal college students as constituents in Ohio's 15th Congressional District.

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Jay LaPrete, Associated Press

Stivers' ratings

Stivers voted in accord with Heritage Action's agenda only 46 percent of the time in the 2015-2016 Congress, which partly accounts for why he is in 10th place for conservatives here. But in other groups' ratings, he winds up in the moderate camp, too.

That's because he has voted to keep EPA emissions-reduction grants. He voted to fund the government and keep it open. He supported giving President Barack Obama fast-track trade authority, and stop the threat of payment cuts -- a threat until then written into law in the hope of saving government money -- made every year to doctors who treated Medicare patients.

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John Minchillo, Associated Press

11. Rob Portman

If you think we're calling Sen. Rob Portman a liberal with his ranking here, put down the pitchforks. You should already know Portman's stance on abortion rights (against), taxes (they're too high), regulations (there are too many). When he came out in favor of gay marriage, he nevertheless took a classically conservative legal view: The decision for or against should have been determined by states.

Democrats are frustrated by Portman's ability to sound reasonable while voting for a conservative agenda. Republicans will say there's nothing unreasonable in either. But what both sides will want to know: What's Portman doing this far down on the conservative scale?

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John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer

Portman's district

When he was in the House of Representatives, Portman, a Republican, had a Cincinnati-based district that stretched along the Ohio River. He still lives in suburban Cincinnati. But as a senator, he represents all of Ohio. (Pins on this map mark the locations of Browns Backers clubs, and Portman backs the Browns -- and the Bengals, too.)

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John Minchillo, Associated Press

Portman's ratings

Why does Portman rank so low on the conservative scale? Credit (if you believe this verifies his moderate status) or blame (if you think he's far more conservative) the realities of Congress.

While trying to push back Obama's clean-air rules for coal and power plants, for example, Portman in recent years supported energy efficiency bills, money for the Highway Trust Fund, reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, confirmation for then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch (a vote the Buckeye Firearms Association called "nauseating") and veterans and Social Security benefits for same-sex spouses (though the latter matter was not binding).

Portman's four-year averages:

American Conservative Union, 62.75

Heritage Action, 41.5.

Political insiders say that as swing-state politicians near reelection, their votes in Congress often become less extreme so they'll appear less divisive to voters. Yet Portman was scoring relatively low on some conservative groups' grade cards four years before he faced reelection. And now that he is safe for six more years?

FreedomWorks, the Tea Party group, has Portman at 69 percent in agreement with its agenda so far in 2017. From its perspective, that gives him the fourth-worst current voting record among all Republican senators -- and that's counting a senator, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who has a low score only because he missed votes after surgery.

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Mark Duncan, Associated Press

12. Dave Joyce

Dave Joyce, a former Geauga County prosecutor, entered Congress after his friend, now-deceased Steve LaTourette (a former prosecutor in neighboring Lake County), stepped down. With a district that includes some of Cuyahoga County's Democratic-leaning suburbs and a number of union households, Joyce enjoys a reputation as a moderate Republican -- to the chagrin of Democrats, whose challenges can't pierce that moderate armor.

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Joyce's district

Joyce's district, Ohio's 14th, is one of the most logical in Ohio: few odd cutouts to allow in this group or exclude that. It goes from Brecksville to the Pennsylvania border.

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Zach Gibson, Associated Press

Joyce's ratings

Joyce's Heritage Action voting score for the last two-year session of Congress, 52, was the same as the group gave Tiberi. That means he got onboard with Heritage's wishes only slightly more than half the time, and it was less often than the average House Republican did. Is it a sign of independence? Disloyalty to the cause? You decide.

But look at the longer view: Joyce had a score of only 44 from Heritage Action in the previous Congress, and a 49 percent Heritage Action lifetime score. His recent failures, if that is your standard, included voting to spend money to help Flint and Sebring deal with their water-contamination crises (fiscally irresponsible, said Heritage), as well as support for other budget and spending bills.

Not yet rated: Joyce's vote against the American Health Care Act, the bill the GOP hopes will end Obamacare. A Senate version of the bill could require more votes, so that chapter is still open.

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13. Mike Turner

A former Dayton mayor, Mike Turner represents the wing of the Republican Party that quickly says "no," and with success, when presidents want to cut Community Development Block Grants and other programs benefiting cities. He was the only Ohio Republican besides Joyce who voted against the American Health Care Act, saying it would "leave our most vulnerable citizens with inadequate health coverage."

Turner, a member of the House armed services and intelligence committees, recently accused the Tea Party caucus of having "a mob mentality."

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Turner's district

Unlike colleagues who have hard-to-define congressional districts, Turner has Dayton -- all of it, and its suburbs -- and the mostly rural territory east to Washington Court House. The geography of the 10th Congressional District is sensible.

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John Minchillo, Associated Press

Turner's ratings

For the keepers of the conservative flame, Turner can be a bit troubling. His votes lined up with Heritage Action's priorities only 39.5 percent of the time in the last four years. The American Conservative Union was equally unimpressed, giving him a meager score of 38 percent in 2015 but bumping him to 57 percent in 2016.

But despite his worries about a mob mentality, he has started off 2017 in agreement with FreedomWorks 75 percent of the time. And as the website FiveThirtyEight notes, Turner is voting in line with President Trump's positions even more often than the turnout of the presidential election in his district (which Trump won) would have made it predict.

Has Turner seen a light? If so, he'll still have work to show he's not the least conservative Republican in Ohio's congressional delegation, as we rank him here. Then again, that ranking could be an asset, based on the way his constituents lean. Turner's district favors Republicans, but not overwhelmingly so, according to a Cook Political Report analysis of partisan voting. (Joyce's district comes in right behind.) Moderates tend to do well in such districts.

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Susan Walsh, Associated Press

14. Tim Ryan

We're down to the Democrats, a small group within the Ohio delegation. None of the Ohio Democrats hides from the "liberal" or "progressive" label. Their order of appearance is a matter of a few degrees and can change year by year, but the most moderate of the Ohio Democrats in Congress right now appears to be Rep. Tim Ryan.

Ryan came to office after the fall of Jim Traficant, a Youngstown legend who went to prison on corruption charges. More polished than Traficant -- and with a different style, as he's a fan of mindfulness meditation and holds a law degree -- Ryan gained national prominence after challenging California Rep. Nancy Pelosi to be House Democratic leader late last year. He said Pelosi had lost touch with America's working class and their economic concerns.

He lost that bid. But he won new followers.

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Ryan's district

Youngstown is the heart and soul of Ryan's district. But with a resemblance to a puzzle piece, the 13th Congressional District also extends west to part of Akron.

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Susan Walsh, Associated Press

Ryan's ratings

Since we used conservative ratings to look at Republicans, we can still follow that continuum with Ryan. Besides, the rankings hold even when you factor in ratings from liberal groups. So how un-conservative is Ryan?

If you took the last four years of Congress and the corresponding ratings from both Heritage Action and the American Conservative Union, his annual average on a scale of 1 to 100 would be 13.875.

For a view from the other side of the mirror, the League of Conservation Voters, judging Congress on environmental matters, gave Ryan a perfect score in 2016 and a 91 for his lifetime votes. The liberal group Americans for Democratic Action gave him an 80 percent rating in 2015.

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Phil Long, Associated Press

15. Marcia Fudge

Marcia Fudge had a tough act to follow when her old boss, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, died unexpectedly in 2008. Jones had been a countywide politician and power player before entering Congress. Fudge, an attorney, Jones' former chief of staff and a mayor in Warrensville Heights, had a smaller base.

She pulled it off anyway. Nearly nine years later, she has served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, been a voice for progressives on the national stage and won her last election -- albeit in a district drawn to be safe for a Democrat -- with 80 percent of the vote.

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Fudge's district

It took skill for Ohio political mavens to draw the 11th Congressional District after the 2010 census. They made sure it was solidly Democratic by including much of Cleveland, then had it shoot straight down to Akron. It practically guaranteed results such as that of the 2016 election, which Fudge won by capturing a whopping 80.25 percent of the vote, the highest share in any Ohio congressional race that year.

Why would Republicans, in charge of the map-making because of their majority, want that? It so happened that by giving Fudge such a a safe district, they provided safety for even more Republicans in other Ohio districts, keeping out too many pesky Democrats.

But the strategy was motivated by something else, too: It satisfied Democrats who wanted to assure that an African-American candidate -- either Fudge or someone else who could follow in the tradition of Tubbs Jones, who followed the political icon Louis Stokes -- held favorable odds in an election. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been interpreted as requiring that minorities have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, and so-called majority-minority districts were the result. The population in Fudge's district is 52.6 percent black. There have been challenges to this concept elsewhere but this district satisfied a number of interests in Ohio.

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Andrew Harnik, Associated Press

Fudge's ratings

Fudge is liberal. How liberal? Using the four-year averages of Heritage Action and the American Conservative Action, Fudge scores a 10 -- and no, that's not 10 as in "perfect." In the eyes of Republicans, Fudge is 90 percent politically deficient.

But how, you might ask, could she even get to 10 out of 100?

The best example pertains to foreign trade. Ideologically conservative groups didn't want to give Obama fast-track authority to execute trade deals with little oversight from Congress. Heritage said this could lead to "boondoggles" for special interests, protectionism and "welfare spending."

Fudge didn't want fast track, either -- because she didn't want deals with "countries that continue to commit human rights and environmental violations across the globe."

Politics makes strange bedfellows -- but in this case, only occasionally.

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Paul Sancya, Associated Press

16. Joyce Beatty

Northeast Ohioans don't hear much about Joyce Beatty. That's only because she's a Democrat from Columbus, and the Toledo-Cleveland-Youngstown corridor has its own, longer-serving Democrats. Beatty has only been in Congress since 2013.

But she served a lot longer in the Ohio state legislature, and was the first female Democratic leader in Ohio's history. Beatty has a record of championing women's and minority issues, but she got a bit more attention for a speech at the last Democratic National Convention.

She stepped to the microphone in Philadelphia in a white, pufffy sleeved dress -- she later said it was a gift from her husband -- and fashionistas immediately noticed it was awfully similar to the $2,190 dress Melania Trump had worn at the Republican convention a week earlier in Cleveland.

Asked by a reporter about the dress, Beatty replied in a not-so-muted reference to Melania Trump's RNC speech, with parts nearly identical to one given years earlier by Michelle Obama, “I just know that I used my own words when I wore the dress.”

Gushed a writer in Elle magazine: "This woman is not afraid of ISIS, Putin, Trump, or stains."

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Beatty's distict

Beatty's district (Ohio's 3rd Congressional District) is among the most compact in Ohio. It includes Columbus and some of its close-in suburbs.

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Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press

Beatty's ratings

The difference between Fudge and Beatty over four years of ratings is small, and a barely perceptible 2 percentage points mark Beatty as ever so slightly more liberal on our axis. Beatty's conservative score using the aforementioned four-year average: 8.

For a different perspective, but with roughly the same outcome, Americans for Democratic Action gave Beatty a 90 in 2015; the AFL-CIO, 100 percent for 2015 and for her lifetime, and the League of Conservation Voters a 100 percent score for 2016.

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Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer

17. Marcy Kaptur

Sure, Marcy Kaptur, currently the longest-serving Ohioan, criticizes President Donald Trump.

But she was known to criticize President Barack Obama, too, over trade. And Bill Clinton, too, when he ended the 1933 Glass-Steagall prohibitions that separated commercial and investment banking -- and, Kaptur says, contributed to banks' reckless behavior a decade ago.

If ever there was a Congress member who embodied populism -- not as a label or a cynical political ploy but as an apparent core belief -- it is Kaptur.

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Kaptur's district

Kaptur had a safe hometown district, based in Toledo, through 2010. Then a new census measuring population changes required a change, and suddenly Kaptur's district was more or less merged with that of Dennis Kucinich.

The victor in the next Democratic primary would have to win a majority in a new 9th District stretching from Toledo to W. 117th Street in Cleveland.

Kaptur pulled it off, and Kucinich has not since run for office.

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Sabrina Eaton, cleveland.com

Kaptur's ratings

Let's get straight to Kaptur's numbers. From conservatives' viewpoint:

American Conservative Union four-year average: 2.

Heritage Action four-year average: 9.

FreedomWorks for this year so far: 8.

Kaptur's single point of agreement with FreedomWorks was a vote, though not her reasons for it, to remove insurance companies' antitrust exemptions. Like Beatty, Fudge and Ryan, Kaptur wanted to make insurers accountable for anti-competitive behavior. Conservatives wanted the protection removed for a different reason: so the free market could function as it should, without favoritism.

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Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer

18. Sherrod Brown

You just know this will wind up in a campaign ad. Sherrod Brown, up for reelection in 2018, is the most liberal member of the Ohio congressional delegation. So we'll grant Brown a mention using a different standard: The Democrat ranked fourth among all senators in the number of sponsored bills that actually passed in the Congress of 2015-2016 and were signed into law, according to an analysis by the Medill News Service.

That can't be done without working with members of both parties, especially since Republicans control both chambers. And Brown has already joined Republicans in co-sponsoring at least 109 bills this year.

You can read about Brown's successful bills here. That doesn't change his ranking.

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Ohio Map Card, by Noe Alfaro, CC By 2.0

Brown's district

Like Portman, Brown is a U.S. senator and represents the entire state. He grew up around Mansfield, represented a U.S. House district that included Lorain, and has lived for several years in Cleveland.

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Andrew Harnik, Associated Press

Brown's ratings

Let's flip things around here:

And how does Brown rate with Republicans?

It's obvious that Brown, congressional conservatives and the groups that support them do not agree on the big issues of the day. Brown wants a strong, proactive government safety net for consumers. He supports abortion rights. He wants to keep Obamacare and not cut the rolls of people who get food stamps, Social Security disability or Medicaid. He winds up on the bottom here only because of the current makeup of Congress and the dominant role of Republicans and conservatism in Washington.

He would say that's putting things backwards.

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How we determined the rankings

There isn't a single best way to rank members of Congress. Some rankings compare how often a member votes with others in his or her party. But in an age of Tea Party rebellion, that can be a measure of party loyalty, not of conservatism or liberalism.

There are narrow interest group comparisons, some of which we have mentioned: the AFL-CIO, for example, and the League of Conservation Voters. These tend to focus on specific areas, such as congressional votes on labor, social justice or environmental issues, and the number of votes they count can be limited.

There are social-issue and values scorecards, such as those from the conservative Family Research Council. And there are business group tallies such as those from the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and anti-tax, small-government group ratings such as those from the Club for Growth.

We looked at all of these, as well as the ratings of the Tea Party-focused FreedomWorks and, on the opposite side, Americans for Democratic Action. Then we calculated and found that with very minor variations, two groups that cover the most extensive variety of issues -- economic, social, fiscal, regulatory and national security -- served as a solid baseline. One group, the American Conservative Union, is the granddaddy in the conservative ratings game. But its ratings have been criticized in the past as being too aligned with establishment Republicans.

So we factored in the scorecards of Heritage Action, a group affiliated with the Heritage Foundation and aligned more with today's ideological activism. We averaged both groups' ratings for each lawmaker over the last four years, then averaged those totals to see how they came out on a scale of 1 to 100. The results are reflected in how we ranked members from 1 to 18 -- from most conservative to most liberal.

If you factor in other ratings, the results change so slightly and with so few exceptions that we feel confident in our methods. But check out the ratings just mentioned if you're looking for a narrow or specific interest.