Presidential candidate Mitt Romney so far is winning the Congressional endorsement contest – he counts a total of 61 official endorsements from senators and representatives, compared with 14 for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 8 for Newt Gingrich, 3 for Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and none for former Ambassador Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Romney counts 13 senators compared with one for Perry, and one for Paul.
Romney's endorsements are widely dispersed, coming from members representing various parts of the country. Perry's endorsements have mostly come from his home state of Texas with the rest almost entirely coming from the South. Gingrich's strength clearly emanates from the deep South and his home state of Georgia.
Those members on the list with the highest ACU ratings supported Perry.
Political endorsements help candidates raise money and attract votes. They also tell something about the candidate who is endorsed, considering the values, record and character of people who publicly support the contender.
The following breakdown is of the American Conservative Union (ACU) ratings (as of the end of 2010) of the endorsers and their time of service. Each has a full list of endorsements, their individual ACU rating, time of service and state of representation.
For members whose ACU information was not available (they served under a year in office), their ACU rating was not counted in the average, but their time of service was counted as one year for averaging purposes. Averages were not calculated for Paul for his three endorsements because two of those members had not served long enough to accrue an ACU rating.
This list will be updated as more endorsements are announced.
Mitt Romney:
Avg. ACU Rating (ACU)- 88.98
Avg. Time of service (TOS)- 9.45
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) - NA
Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.) ACU- 93.67 TOS- 14
Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) ACU- 74.00 TOS- 1
Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.) ACU- 91.06 TOS- 16
Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.) ACU- 80.34 TOS- 38
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) ACU- 89.47 TOS- 34
Sen. John Hoeven (N.D.) - NA
Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.) ACU- 58.00 TOS- 10
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) ACU- 82.61 TOS- 28
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) ACU- 70.54 TOS- 8
Sen. James Risch (Idaho) ACU- 98.00 TOS- 2
Sen. John Thune (S.D.) ACU- 88.97 TOS- 12
Rep. Rodney Alexander (La.) ACU- 79.50 TOS- 8
Rep. Mark Amodei (Nev.) - NA
Rep. Charles Bass (N.H.) - NA
Rep. Judy Biggert (Ill.) ACU- 70.50 TOS- 12
Rep. Brian Bilbray (Calif.) ACU- 79.73 TOS- 11
Rep. Rob Bishop (Utah) ACU- 97.33 TOS- 8
Rep. Diane Black (Tenn.) - NA
Rep. Mary Bono Mack (Calif.) ACU- 73.74 TOS- 13
Rep. Ken Calvert (Calif.) ACU- 89.52 TOS- 18
Rep. Dave Camp (Mich.) - NA
Rep. John Campbell (Calif.) ACU- 92.17 TOS- 6
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah) ACU- 100 TOS- 2
Rep. Howard Coble (N.C.) ACU- 89.73 TOS- 26
Rep. Ander Crenshaw (Fla.) ACU- 89.30 TOS- 10
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.) ACU- 72.05 TOS- 18
Rep. Robert Dold (Ill.) - NA
Rep. John Duncan (Tenn.) ACU- 87.84 TOS- 22
Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) ACU- 96.40 TOS- 10
Rep. Virginia Foxx (N.C.) ACU- 99.33 TOS- 6
Rep. Jim Gerlach (Pa.) ACU- 63.13 TOS- 8
Rep. Tim Griffin (Ark.) - NA
Rep. Michael Grimm (N.Y.) - NA
Rep. Nan Hayworth (N.Y.) - NA
Rep. Joe Heck (Nev.) - NA
Rep. Wally Herger (Calif.) ACU- 96.38 TOS- 24
Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) ACU- 91.90 TOS- 10
Rep. Leonard Lance (N.J.) ACU- 78.00 TOS- 2
Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.) ACU- 82.77 TOS- 32
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.) ACU- 100 TOS- 2
Rep. Connie Mack IV (Fla.) ACU- 93.33 TOS- 6
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) ACU- 84.63 TOS- 8
Rep. Patrick McHenry (N.C.) ACU- 98.00 TOS- 6
Rep. Buck McKeon (Calif.) ACU- 90.62 TOS- 18
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) ACU- 94.17 TOS- 6
Rep. Jeff Miller (Fla.) ACU- 96.41 TOS- 9
Rep. Jim Renacci (Ohio) - NA
Rep. Phil Roe (Tenn.) ACU- 94.00 TOS- 2
Rep. Hal Rogers (Ky.) ACU- 85.21 TOS- 30
Rep. Mike Rogers (Ala.) ACU- 82.19 TOS- 8
Rep. Mike Rogers (Mich.) ACU- 90.70 TOS- 10
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.) ACU- 95.06 TOS- 22
Rep. Todd Rokita (Ind.) - NA
Rep. Tom Rooney (Fla.) ACU- 98.00 TOS- 2
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) ACU- 73.23 TOS- 22
Rep. Aaron Schock (Ill.) ACU- 90.00 TOS- 2
Rep. Mike Simpson (Idaho) ACU- 86.63 TOS- 12
Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas) ACU- 92.47 TOS- 24
Rep. Greg Walden (Ore.) ACU- 82.42 TOS- 12
Rep. Ed Whitfield (Ky.) ACU- 87.55 TOS- 16
Rick Perry:
Avg. ACU Rating (ACU)- 95.11
Avg. Time of service (TOS) - 9.00
Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.) ACU- 97.59 TOS- 24
Rep. John Carter (Texas) ACU- 95.00 TOS- 8
Rep. Mike Coffman (Colo.) ACU- 96.00 TOS- 2
Rep. Mike Conaway (Texas) ACU- 95.33 TOS- 6
Rep. John Culberson (Texas) ACU- 97.37 TOS- 10
Rep. Sam Graves (Mo.) ACU- 91.75 TOS- 10
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Texas) ACU- 98.96 TOS- 8
Rep. Sam Johnson (Texas) ACU- 98.23 TOS- 20
Rep. Kenny Marchant (Texas) ACU- 95.83 TOS- 6
Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas) ACU- 93.83 TOS- 6
Rep. Candice Miller (Mich.) ACU- 80.31 TOS- 8
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (S.C.) - NA
Rep. Steve Scalise (La.) ACU- 98.67 TOS- 3
Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas) ACU- 97.57 TOS- 14
Newt Gingrich:
Avg. ACU Rating (ACU)- 96.26
Avg. Time of service (TOS)- 9.25 yrs
Rep. Joe Barton (Texas) ACU- 94.21 TOS- 26
Rep. Michael Burgess (Texas) ACU- 94.88 TOS- 8
Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.) ACU- 96.00 TOS- 8
Rep. Andy Harris (Md.) - NA
Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.) ACU- 96.51 TOS- 18
Rep. Tom Price (Ga.) ACU- 98.00 TOS- 6
Rep. Austin Scott (Ga.) - NA
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.) ACU- 97.94 TOS- 6
Ron Paul:
Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) - NA
Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.) - NA
Rep. Walter Jones Jr. (N.C.) ACU- 86.23 TOS- 16
