ST. PAUL — Republican Mike McFadden and his party have seized on a big number in their efforts to boot Sen. Al Franken from office: 97 percent.

That’s how often Minnesota’s freshman Democrat has voted with President Barack Obama, according to Congressional Quarterly’s vote scoring. McFadden has made it a frequent talking point in interviews, stump speeches and ads.

The score is calculated from a fraction of the votes Franken has cast since taking office in 2009 — only votes for which the president has expressed a public opinion are counted. And Franken’s total, like that of many U.S. senators, is inflated by procedural votes and uncontroversial nominations.

In nearly a quarter of those votes, GOP senators unanimously joined with Franken to vote with the president, according to an analysis of Franken’s votes, which CQ provided to The Associated Press. A majority of Republicans sided with Obama in another 20 percent of the votes.

When Franken did break with the president, it was often in a more liberal direction. In one of 10 such instances, he voted against a second term for former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in 2010, citing concern that he hadn’t done enough to protect consumers from 2007’s economic collapse and bank bailouts.