The non-partisan National Journal recently rated John Kerry as the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. Both liberal and conservative groups that analyze Congressional voting records place him among the most liberal Senators. Indications are the election will be close. But if Kerry’s record were better publicized, he would lose in a landslide.

Candidate Kerry changes his stand on the Iraq War on an almost daily basis. It seems his positions are based more on polls than on the national interest.

Senator Kerry has voted against the Strategic Defense Initiative, the B-2 Stealth Bomber, and the MX Missile. He has said he would vote to cancel the B-1 Bomber, AH-64 Apache Helicopter, Patriot Missile, AV-8B Harrier Jet, Aegis Air-defense Cruiser, and the Trident Missile System, and has advocated reductions in the Abrams Tank, Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Tomahawk Cruise Missile, and the F-16 Jet. He later changed his position on some of these issues.

Since September 11, 2001, all sides have agreed that we need to improve our intelligence capability. Yet as a Senator Kerry voted to cut $6 billion from the overall intelligence budget and $80 million from the FBI budget. In 1995 he introduced legislation to reduce intelligence funding by $1.5 billion, but could not find a single co-sponsor for the bill.

Kerry served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1993-2001. Records show he was absent from 76% of the committee’s public meetings.

Kerry has often voted against spending for weapons systems and intelligence gathering, but he has voted in favor of spending for almost everything else.

As a Senator, Kerry has voted for more spending or higher taxes 86 percent of the time. Only three of the 100 Senators have a worse record. A study by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation estimated that Kerry’s campaign promises would increase Federal spending a minimum of $226 thousand-million (billion) in the first year alone.

Candidate Kerry claims he only wants to raise taxes on those earning over $200,000 a year. But Senator Kerry has repeatedly voted for taxes that burden citizens of all income levels. He has voted against repealing the Federal death tax and against eliminating the “marriage penalty,” which taxes many middle-class married couples at higher rates than they would be taxed if they were single and living together. He has voted for taxing the Social Security benefits of people earning $32,000 a year or more, and for higher gas and tobacco taxes. He has advocated a 50-cent per gallon increase in the Federal gas tax.

Candidate Kerry is fond of posing with a shotgun. But Senator Kerry has consistently voted against the rights of gun owners. According to the National Rifle Association, during his 20 years in the Senate Kerry voted against Second Amendment rights 93 percent of the time, one of the worst records in Congress.

Last year Kerry co-sponsored legislation that would have banned various weapons, including a “semiautomatic shotgun that has a pistol grip.” Almost all modern shotguns and rifles have “pistol grip” stocks. This year he voted for amendments that killed a bill that would have protected firearms manufacturers from being sued because a criminal misused their product. During the primaries he attacked Howard Dean for having opposed anti-gun laws in Vermont.

Kerry has voted for Federal firearms registration, for the Brady Bill, and for Federal prohibition of concealed weapons permits (such as N.C. has). He has advocated higher taxes on firearms and ammunition.

Candidate Kerry tries to pass himself off as a social moderate, but Senator Kerry has voted the extreme liberal position on social issues. In 1996 he was one of only 14 Senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. The Act defined marriage for Federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman, and authorized states to refuse to recognize same sex “marriages” performed in other states. All Republican Senators and over two-thirds of Democrat Senators voted in favor of the Act.