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Russ Feingold's Ratings and Endorsements on Issue: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Vote Smart displays all known interest group ratings for each candidate and official, regardless of issue or bias.

Keep in mind that ratings done by special interest groups often do not represent a non-partisan stance. In addition, some groups select votes that tend to favor members of one political party over another, rather than choosing votes based solely on issue concerns. Nevertheless, they can be invaluable in showing where an incumbent has stood on a series of votes in the past one or two years, especially when ratings by groups on all sides of an issue are compared. Website links, if available, and descriptions of the organizations offering performance evaluations are accessible by clicking on the name of the group.

With rare exceptions, Vote Smart displays interest group ratings as a 0-100 percentage. While many interest groups use percentages as ratings to begin with, please note that Vote Smart has translated some ratings to a percentage from a different rating system for consistency and ease in understanding. Please visit the group's website, email us at ratings@votesmart.org or call our Voter Information Hotline at 1-888-VOTESMART for more specific information.

100%
2001
100%
2001
100%
2009
100
2008
100
2007
75%
2006
100%
2005
86%
2004
100%
2003
33%
2006-2012
33%
2006-2012
90%
2007-2008
90%
2007-2008
89%
2005-2006
89%
2005-2006
88%
2003-2004
88%
2003-2004
86%
2001-2002
86%
2001-2002
80%
2001
71%
1999-2000
71%
1999-2000
83%
1999
83%
1997-1998
83%
1997-1998
89%
1995-1996
89%
1995-1996
100%
2007
100%
2007
100%
2007
100%
2007
100%
2005-2010
92%
2001-2002
6%
2009
16%
2007
39%
2007
10%
2005
35%
2005
23%
2005
28%
2004
40
2003
40
2003
40
2003
31
2002
31
2002
31
2002
21%
2001
21%
2000
100%
2007-2008
100%
2007-2008
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