Congressional Rankings Galore

Yesterday, the AFL-CIO and Drum Major Institute released a pair of Congressional “scorecards” ranking members of Congress on various issues. For the AFL-CIO, it was mainly labor issues; for DMI, it was mainly issues related to the welfare of the middle class.

Over the past several weeks, a number of other groups have released their Congressional “scorecards” as well. However, in all of the uproar of the presidential race, many of those got missed. So, this morning, we’re going to bring you not only the DMI and AFL-CIO scorecard results but also those of the ACLU, League Of Conservation Voters, Children’s Defense Fund Action Council, SEIU, and the Secular Coalition for America.

Let’s start with the Texas Congressional Delegation’s performance on those scorecards released yesterday: DMI and the AFL-CIO. First, Drum Major Institute.

Not surprisingly, every Republican in the Texas Congressional Delegation scored an “F” (save Ron Paul who earned a “D”) for the first half of the 110th Congress during 2007, and most have very poor voting records so far during the second half of the 110th. Here are the Congressmen (and women) scoring “F’s” in 2007, followed by their current scores from DMI:

Joe Barton, F, 20%
Michael Burgess, F, 0%
Michael Conaway, F 20%
John Culberson, F, 20%
Ralph Hall, F, 40%
Mike McCaul, F, 40%
Ted Poe, F, 0%
Lamar Smith, F, 60%
Kevin Brady, F, 20%
John Carter, F, 40%
Louie Gohmert, F, 20%
Kay Granger, F, 40%
Jeb Hensarling, F, 20%
Sam Johnson, F, 40%
Kenny Marchant, F, 40%
Ron Paul, D, 0%
Pete Sessions, F, 40%
Mac Tornberry, F, 40%

Basically, every single GOP Congressman from Texas voted against middle class families more than three-quarters of the time during the first-half of the 110th Congress. Very, very sad.

All Democrats scored either A-plus, A, or B, save Nick Lampson who scored a “C.”

Now, turning our attention to the AFL-CIO’s scorecard, we see again that Democrats all score in the high 80s-100 percent range and Republicans, well, stink when it comes to labor issues:

Gohmert: 9%
Poe: 25%
Johnson: 5%
Hall: 8%
Hensarling: 4%
Barton: 4%
Brady: 4%
McCaul: 9%
Conaway: 4%
Granger: 4%
Thornberry: 4%
Paul: 21%
Neugebauer: 4%
Smith: 13%
Marchant: 9%
Burgess: 8%
Carter: 4%
Sessions: 4%

And, actually, not all of the issues in the AFL-CIO scorecard were strictly labor related. Issues the AFL-CIO ranked on included minimum wage, medicare prescription drug negotiations, college student relief, the Employee Free Choice Act, DC Voting rights, National Security Personnel System, prevailing wage, and SCHIP.

Now, let’s take a look at the ACLU’s score card, which I’ve just copied and pasted below:

Name		Party		State		Score		1		2		3		4		5		6

The key to those votes, by the way, is as follows:

1. Eliminating Pay Discrimination

2. Government Funded Religious Discrimination in Head Start

3. Preventing Illegal Wiretapping

4. Prosecuting Hate Crimes (House)

5. Protect America Act (House)

6. Videotaping Detainee Interrogations

Now, let’s look at the League of Conservation Voter’s scorecard where, once again, Republicans basically tank:

The Children’s Defense Fund’s scorecard is similar, with Republicans doing poorly when it comes to protecting Children.

Senate

Sen. John Cornyn (R) 40%
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) 70%

House

Rep. Joe Barton (R) 20%
Rep. Kevin P. Brady (R) 20%
Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R) 20%
Rep. John R. Carter (R) 20%
Rep. Mike Conaway (R) 20%
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D) 100%
Rep. John A. Culberson (R) 10%

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D) 100%
Rep. Chet Edwards (D) 100%
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) 30%
Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez (D) 100%
Rep. Kay Granger (R) 20%
Rep. Al Green (D) 100%
Rep. Gene Green (D) 90%
Rep. Ralph M. Hall (R) 20%
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R) 10%
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D) 90%
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D) 100%
Rep. Sam Johnson (R) 10%
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) 90%
Rep. Nicholas V. Lampson (D) 90%
Rep. Kenny Marchant (R) 10%
Rep. Michael McCaul (R) 30%
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R) 10%
Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz (D) 100%
Rep. Ron E. Paul (R) 0%
Rep. Ted Poe (R) 30%
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D) 100%
Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez (D) 100%
Rep. Pete Sessions (R) 10%
Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R) 30%
Rep. William “Mac” Thornberry (R) 30%
State Delegation Average: 51%
State Rank: 38

The Secular Coalition’s scorecard is presented in a more complicated format than the rest, so we urge you to take a peek at it yourself.

Tweet This Post   Ping This Post

Bookmark It