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    2012 ACU Michigan Legislature Ratings


    By Conservative First, Section News
    Posted on Wed Aug 29, 2012 at 03:03:36 PM EST
    Tags: Michigan legislature, American Conservative Union, Dave Agema, Joe Hune, Roy Schmidt (all tags)

    The American Conservative Union has long been the premier organization rating members of Congress on how conservative their voting records are.  Last year, ACU began rating state legislators on their voting records, and it recently released its first ratings of the Michigan state legislature.

    http://conservative.org/ratingsarchive/stateratings/2012/MIStateLegislativeRatings.pdf

    ACU rated 17 house votes and 18 senate votes from 2012.  Many of the bills are the same for both halves of the legislature.  Many of the bills are closely related to unions and education.

    Here are some notes on the results.

    In the state house, Dave Agema was the only member to score 100%.

    The members who scored 94% (one bad vote) are Franz, Goike, Haveman, Hooker, Huuki, Knollenberg, LaFontaine, Lund, MacGregor, McMillin, Moss, Opsommer, Price, Shirkey, and Walsh.

    The lowest-scoring Republicans (not counting Roy Schmidt) were Glardon, Horn, and Muxlow (each 76%).

    Party switchin' Roy Schmidt scored 53% overall.  He scored 25% while he was a democrat and 78% while he was a Republican.

    The top-scoring democrats are Richard LeBlanc (47%) and Lesia Liss (41%).  Three democrats (Vicki Barnett, Ellen Lipton, and John Olumba) scored 0%.

    In the state senate, Joe Hune was the only member to score 100%.  Overall, the scores are

    100%: Hune
    94%: Brandenberg, Jansen, Pavlov, Robertson, Walker
    89%: Colbeck, Emmons, Hildenbrand, Kowall, Meekhof, Richardville
    83%: Booher, Jones, Marleau, Moolenaar, Pappageorge, Rocca, Schuitmaker
    76-78%: Caswell, Green, Hansen, Kahn, Proos
    72%: Casperson, Nofs
    28%: Gleason
    22%: Hunter
    17%: Bieda
    11-13%: Andersen, Johnson, Smith, Young
    6%: Gregory, Hood, Hopgood, Warren, Whitmer

    It's interesting that Randy Richardville scored higher than his competitor for Senate Republican leader, John Proos.  Nofs, Proos, and Caswell are the most disappointing Republicans, given that they have safe districts.

    The votes that tripped up the most Republicans in both houses were Brian Calley's autism mandate (SB 414) and "a new tax on produce sales from farmers to 'grain dealers'" (SB 888).

    Of course, the usual caveats apply to any legislative ratings system.  Legislators' scores will vary from year to year, so it will be interesting to compare these scores to future years' scores.  Also, ratings only cover issues that were actually voted upon, so controversial issues like Right to Work and never made it to a vote can't be scored.

    < Oh NOES! Repealing PA312? | 24 + 4 = 30? >


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    Don't wholely agree with ACU (none / 0) (#1)
    by InksLWC on Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 12:21:21 AM EST
    I'd like to hear the full reasoning, but simply saying, "ACU opposes new taxes which are ultimately paid for by the consumer in higher prices and opposes this bill" seems a bit short-sighted.  Sometimes there are needs for consumer tax increases.

    I also think SB 414 should've been left out of the rankings, but I don't feel as strongly about that.

    one vote (none / 0) (#2)
    by Tom McMillin on Thu Aug 30, 2012 at 08:14:25 AM EST
    Actually, the one "bad vote" for me that they rated was when I voted against the MPSERS reform because we didn't close the Defined Benefit pension to new school employees...They've been contacted by others, to say that a "no" vote on sb1040 was the right vote.

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