Virginia Tea Party has released their scorecard for the 2018 General Assembly session.
5 State Senators and 12 Delegates received a 100% score, all of them Republican, of course. They are State Senators Dick Black, Amanda Chase, Steve Newman, Mark Peake, and David Suetterlein, and Delegates Les Adams, Dickie Bell, (Congressman-elect) Ben Cline, Nick Freitas, Steve Landes, Dave LaRock, Jay Leftwich, Brenda Pogge, Charles Poindexter, Lee Ware, Tony Wilt, and Tommy Wright.
Notables in the Senate are State Senators Bill Stanley and Richard Stuart who both received 95% because they missed one vote each on the bills taken for the scoring. Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment received a 80%, which is (tied for) the second highest score given to anyone who voted on each bill tracked for this scorecard. Democrat Minority Leader Dick Saslaw received 28%. State Senator Jill Vogel received the lowest score among Senate Republicans with 46% and State Senator Chap Peterson received the highest score among Senate Democrats with 62%. Also noteworthy are the three Republican state senators who joined Vogel in voting for Medicaid Expansion; Ben Chafin with 55%, Emmett Hanger with 55%, and Frank Wagner with 60%.
Notables in the House include solid conservatives such as Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, Delegates Rob Bell, and Michael Webert who all received 80%, which is (tied for) the second highest score given to anyone who voted on each bill tracked for this scorecard. House Speaker Kirk Cox received 60%. Delegate Terry Austin received the lowest score among House Republicans with 55%. Outgoing Democrat Minority Leader David Toscano received 25% and incoming Democrat Minority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn received 5%. Several Democrats tied for 30%, which was highest, and 5% which was the lowest, for any House Democrat.
“The Virginia Tea Party CoLA legislative scorecard has become the standard for well-researched analysis for new legislation in the Virginia Assembly,” said Virginia Tea Party Chairman Rick Buchanan. “Carol Stopps and her team of bill readers are experts in their chosen fields of interest and are dedicated to insuring each bill they select to research is fairly interpreted. Our representatives would do well to pay heed to their work.”
This blog likes legislative scorecards because they quantify votes based on their importance to the organization who creates the scorecard. Some criticize scorecards because the bills used are cherry picked, but that should be expected because not all votes are considered which cuts out the fat and presents the most important items. So long as the organization is open and transparent on which bills and why, then the scorecard process is fine, and this scorecard is one of the best in Virginia.
Virginia Tea Party made their scores based on floor votes on 16 pieces of legislation for state senators and 15 pieces of legislation for delegates. A weighted total was used. For a full list and brief description of the bills used to create their score click here for the State Senate and here for the House of Delegates.
Thank you to those General Assembly members who had a high score.
