States with very similar Senate delegations?

[IceSpear]

The thread about Alabama's senators made me think of this. What Senate delegations have very little if any policy/ideological differences between them? Obviously this would exclude 1 D/1 R delegations. These are some of my guesses, but maybe others know the nuances of these senators better than I do:

Alabama
Georgia
Idaho
Kansas
Maryland
New Mexico
Tennessee
Washington
Wyoming

[King]

I'd add Oklahoma and California to the list. Feinstein and Coburn can talk a little more pragmatic than their partners sometimes, but it's not a huge difference when it comes to votes.

[angus]

I'd add Oklahoma and California to the list.

I don't know about Oklahoma, but I disagree with California.  Boxer was one of the few who voted against authorizing the use of military in 2002, whereas Feinstein went with the majority.  Feinstein has been much more independent with respect to her Middle East policy goals, whereas Boxer has always been an unqualified supporter of Israel's policies.  They were also not in lockstep during Davis' re-election campaign and had different views during the recall election of Governor Davis.  I moved away from California in 2004, and haven't paid a great deal of attention to them since, but up to that time I always had the feeling that they were different ideologically and practically.

Of course, if you're only interested in recent voting history, then you could argue that they have similar patterns.  According to opencongress.org, they have voted the same way in 94% of all bills during the 113th congress.  While we're at it, Inhofe and Coburn have voted the same way in 72% of them.  I'm not sure that's the best metric, however, when comparing ideologies, since political parties, after long negotiations, dealing, and favor calling, put together complicated packages which then get voted on, largely along party lines.  (Robert Casey, for example, also votes with Feinstein 94% of the time.  Similarly, Robert Casey and Richard Durbin vote together 94% of the time.  Pick any two Democrats and you'll see that the overlap is typically 90% or greater.  They're both democrats, and therefore answering to the same set of lawyers and lobbyists, after all.  Republican head-to-head comparisons are on average lower, 75% and 80% are not uncommon.  Not surprising since they're not currently the big money in that chamber at the moment, so the dealing and lobbying doesn't tweak their actual voting quite as much at this particular time.)  The congressional voting record comparison therefore may not actually reflect the true similarities in political ideologies of any two members of congress.  Sad the way that works, but true.  (Toomey and Casey vote together 33% of the time, while Toomey and Cochran vote together 78% of the time, even though I have a very hard time imagining that Toomey and Cochran should share more common practical policy interests than Toomey and Casey.) 

[SWE]

Schatz and Hirono seem pretty similar to me

[publicunofficial]

Tester/Walsh

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I would definitely agree with the Chambliss/Isakson and Corker/Alexander connection. Perhaps I would also propose Coons/Carper?

Alternatively which (single-party) delegations are the most different - Cruz/Conryn? Flake/McCain? Paul/McConnell? Hutch/Lee? Interesting how it's all Republicans that are wildly divergent partners. The only Democratic strange bedfellows I can think of are Boxer/Feinstein and Manchin/Rockefellar (uber moderate vs possibly the most inexplicable senator in congress).

[SWE]

I would definitely agree with the Chambliss/Isakson and Corker/Alexander connection. Perhaps I would also propose Coons/Carper?

Alternatively which (single-party) delegations are the most different - Cruz/Conryn? Flake/McCain? Paul/McConnell? Hutch/Lee? Interesting how it's all Republicans that are wildly divergent partners. The only Democratic strange bedfellows I can think of are Boxer/Feinstein and Manchin/Rockefellar (uber moderate vs possibly the most inexplicable senator in congress).

Flake and McCain are actually probably one of the most similar pairs of senators

[IceSpear]

Feinstein is more of a hawk than Boxer, which is why I didn't include California.

Oklahoma is possible, but Coburn seems much more principled than Inhofe who is basically just a brainless GOP hack.

Hawaii and Montana are probably good editions, I forgot about the latter because I was still thinking of Baucus instead of Walsh.

McCain is one of the biggest neocons in the Senate, whereas Flake has a libertarian bent, so I don't see them as very similar.

[Never]

What about Virginia? Mark Warner is more personable than Tim Kaine, but both senators seem the same on policy.  That's one state with a unified Senate delegation that I haven't seen listed on this thread yet.

[Maxwell]

Oklahoma isn't, because Coburn is anti-earmark and Inhofe is pro-earmark. That doesn't sound like a big issue, but it it's a reason why I wouldn't consider the Senate delegation in Oklahoma to be too similar.