A national conservative anti-tax group has ranked 87 freshman House Republicans according to their Tea Party credentials, with former Philadelphia U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan landing squarely near the bottom.

The Club for Growth – which describes ^[1] itself as an advocate of economic freedom, limited government and low taxes — supports uncompromising conservatives of the kind Democrats blame for gridlock in Washington. The group’s scorecard, released last week, ranks the lawmakers by their voting records on fiscal issues. The metric accounted for a range of economic and regulatory bills, including votes on repealing “ObamaCare,” increasing the debt limit and limiting the National Labor Relations Board’s powers, in addition to a number of other spending bills and trade agreements.

Out of the 87 Republicans, Meehan, a Pennsylvania Republican elected i 2010, ranked No. 86 and voted 42 percent of the time on the conservative side, according to Club for Growth’s scorecard ^[2]. The average veteran Republican in Congress received 69 percent.

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Pat Meehan (Pat Meehan for Congress)

“After a careful review to see if their records match their rhetoric, we found that for many of the freshmen Republicans, promises of fiscal responsibility have proven to be empty,” the group wrote in a news release ^[4].

It continued ^[5]: “While the rhetoric of the freshmen may be loud… In many cases, the rhetoric of the so-called “Tea Party” freshmen simply didn’t match their records.”

Meehan, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in the George W. Bush administration, was docked for voting ^[6] to increase the debt limit and for voting against legislation to slash funding for a number of programs. He won points for voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act and for barring the Environmental Protection Agency from moving forward with greenhouse gas regulations.

“Congressman Meehan said he would work to cut taxes, help small businesses create jobs, balance our budget, hold the federal government accountable, and repeal and replace the health care law,  and that’s exactly what he’s done,” a Meehan spokeswoman told PoliticsPA ^[7]. “He’ll continue to be an independent voice fighting for the people of Pennsylvania’s 7th District.”

The Independence Hall Tea Party PAC compiled a similar list of votes, with Meehan scoring much higher with a 70. The head of the PAC, which spans across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, told PoliticsPA that Meehan has been “extremely responsive to our concerns and [has] kept the lines of communication open to our organization and other Tea Party groups,” according to its report ^[7].

Meehan is the chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence. He also sits on the Oversight and Government Reform and Transportation and Infrastructure committees.

Meehan was sworn ^[8] in as U.S. Attorney just days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He created an Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council for his region, which became a model for law enforcement across the country. He was also one of seven U.S. Attorneys to serve on Bush‘s Corporate Fraud Task Force.

Meehan had a record of prosecuting corrupt politicians, taking down a number of state officials during his seven years as the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia.