The Jersey City Independent"

According to the National Journal’s annual tally of select House votes, in 2009, Donald Payne was the most liberal Rep. that represents Jersey City. Parts of Jersey City are covered by three different Congressional districts: Payne represents the 10th, which covers a sliver of the city’s south and west sides. Steve Rothman represents the 9th, which covers most of the Heights; and Albio Sires represents the 13th, which covers the rest of the city.

According to the rankings, which are based on a system developed by the magazine in 1981, Payne is the 46th most liberal House member, and the second most liberal from New Jersey (the 12th District’s Rush Holt was tops in New Jersey, as he was ranked number 1 in the entire House). Rothman came in at 58th, and Sires at 111th.

And, if you’re wondering who the most conservative House member from New Jersey is, that would be Scott Garrett, who represents the 5th District.

Over on the Senate side, both of New Jersey’s Democratic senators ranked pretty high on the liberal scale, with Frank Lautenberg coming in as the 6th most liberal senator, and Bob Menendez as the 17th.

Of course, rankings like these come with a huge grain of salt that even the folks who put them together acknowledge — don’t expect only one of them to give you a complete picture of the politician’s policy stance, since they all use different methodologies. “There’s pluses and minuses to each rating system,” a National Journal editor told PolitiFact in 2008. “If you look at a number of them, I think you have a pretty good picture.”