… Until now, it has been nearly impossible to compare the ideological gap in Senate and House campaigns systematically. But an online service making its debut on Tuesday, known as Crowdpac, aims to change that. Using the work of a Stanford political scientist, it gives an ideological score to all candidates, based on their donors and, for those who have held federal office before, their voting history. Other rating systems tend to be based only on votes and, as a result, don’t cover candidates who haven’t been in Congress before. …
The model examines everyone who has given money to a candidate – and every other candidate who has received money from these same donors, as well as the causes those donors support. A statistical algorithm is then able to place all candidates on a spectrum and give each a score. CONT.
David Leonhardt, New York Times