What is ideal_point?

[mo-ib]

I assume this is the "ideal" political lean of the legislator compared to their dw_nominate score? Where does this ideal value come from?

[nateb84]

My hunch - no insight here - is this Jackman, Rivers & Clinton's IDEAL estimator. Same principle as dw_nominate, just different approach. If you want to nerd out the differences are explained here: https://legacy.voteview.com/pdf/nominatevideal.pdf