John McCain Cares About Conservative Policies (When He’s Running for Re-Election)

As we ring in a new year, we see members of Congress reinvent themselves quicker than Americans sign up for gym memberships. In Washington, in an election year, Republicans tend to adopt a conservative façade, only to wait until after November to show their true colors. Senator John McCain, for instance, demonstrated this behavior after his failed bid for the White House, following a dismal 69 percent rating on the FreedomWorks Congressional Scorecard in 2009 with an apparently conservative 96 percent the following year. After securing re-election, his rating dropped to as low as 48 percent.

“The problem with politicians being in Washington for so long is that they fall in love with the marble in the halls of the Capitol,” said FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon. “John McCain has portrayed himself as a ‘maverick,’ but the reality is that he’s just another establishment Republican politician who votes like a conservative only when he’s running for re-election.”

“We already know about McCain’s visceral hatred of free speech rights protected by the First Amendment and his frequent votes to raise the debt ceiling. But in the last few years, he’s become even more out of step with fiscally conservative principles and constitutional values,” Brandon continued. “McCain became an ally of Harry Reid in the Senate against principled conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, voted to renew the crony Export-Import Bank, supported the Internet sales tax, and backed a budget deal that broke the spending caps by $80 billion.”

“After reviewing our Congressional Scorecard, we noticed a trend in McCain’s voting record in the Senate. Since 2009, when President Obama took office, McCain has been inconsistent. The only year he scored above 90 percent was 2010, when, curiously, he was up for re-election. We wouldn’t be surprised to see McCain, once again, become an election year convert to conservatism, only to revert to his bad habits after November,” Brandon added.

Click here to get the facts on John McCain’s election year conversion to conservatism. For more on McCain’s year-by-year voting record, please visit FreedomWorks’ Congressional Scorecard.

FreedomWorks aims to educate, build, and mobilize the largest network of activists advocating the principles of smaller government, lower taxes, free markets, personal liberty and the rule of law. For more information, please visit www.FreedomWorks.org or contact Jason Pye at JPye@freedomworks.org.