Last updated on 2013.03.11
A new pre-general election scorecard has surfaced to grade sitting Republican legislators on their fealty to the GOP platform. The results:
- The Senate is an appalling hotbed of Republican fakery, with only 2 out of 21 Republican Senators scoring above 50%. Sen. Ryan Maher (R-28/Isabel), who used to call himself a Democrat, drew the high score at 64%. Sen. Tim Begalka (R-4/Clear Lake) came in second at 64%. Depending on your grading scale, you could say every Republican Senator flunked the platform test.
- Four GOP Senators scored below 30%: Sen. Craig Tieszen (R-34/Rapid City), Sen. Al Novstrup (R-3/Aberdeen), Sen. Deb Peters (R-9/Hartford), and, with a score matching his district number, the least Republican Senator, Corey Brown (R-23/Gettysburg).
- House Republicans paint Pierre redder: 15 out of 35 GOP Reps scored meet or beat the 50% threshold. The most Republican Reps in the House this year were the two Republicans thrown out of the GOP caucus, Rep. Stace Nelson (R-25/Fulton) and Rep. Lance Russell (R-30/Hot Springs). They scored 97% and 92%, respectively.
- The bums who threw them out of caucus draw hard failing scores. Majority Leader David Lust (R-34/Rapid City) and Assistant Majority Leader Justin Cronin (R-23/Gettysburg) both a 32%; Speaker Pro-Tem Brian Gosch (R-32/Rapid City) shows them up with a measly 41%.
- The weakest RINOs in the House pool are Rep. David Scott (R-21/Geddes) at 29% and Rep. Jim White (R-22/Huron) at 28%.
- 43 out of 66 Republican legislators (65%) got lower GOP-fidelity scores this year than in 2011.
Over the past year, we have seen three similar scorecards released by usually anonymous agitators waging a campaign to rid the GOP of what they call "Republicans in Name Only":
- the John Birch-flavored Freedom Index in September 2011;
- SDRepublican.org's Republican Platform Voting Scorecard in November 2011;
- Gordon Howie's deeply flawed and ultimately irrelevant (but pleasantly not anonymous!) pre-primary theocracy scorecard in May 2012.
All three of those scorecards cherry-picked legislative issues to suit the agenda of ultra-conservative agitators who want to unseat the current SDGOP leadership.
SDRepublican.org's new pre-general election scorecard at least broadens the number of bills surveyed. Their report card last year scored 20 bills. The 2012 House scorecard weighs votes on 49 bills (33 on House floor, 16 in committee). The 2012 Senate scorecard weighs 48 votes (25 on Senate floor, 23 in committee). The bills include the usual dose of chest-thumping time-wasters on ObamaCare, abortion, and guns. However, the scorecards include more bills dealing with spending on buildings, taxes, government accountability, and education. Every bill comes with citations of Republican Party platform planks which justify the scoring of each bill as pro- or anti-GOP.
The scorecard omits GOP legislators who have stood down or been sent home by primary voters. For instance, the ratings omit the retiring Rep. Patricia Stricherz (R-8/Winfred) and Rep. Chuck Turbiville (R-31/Deadwood). The ratings also don't score Sen. Tom Nelson (R-31/Lead), who got hammered in an anti-RINO stampede by Bob Ewing in the June primary. This scorecard does not offer a full analysis of the Legislature's performance. It provides fodder for a continued campaign against active candidates and GOP leadership targets.
The 2012 scorecard also denies us the pleasure of scoring the Democrats. The 2011 scorecard revealed that Democrats like Sen. Jason Frerichs (D-1/Wilmot), Sen. Angie Buhl (D-15/Sioux Falls), and Rep. Frank Kloucek (D-19/Scotland) voted more like Republicans than many Republicans. I'm not sure whom such scores should embarrass more: Republicans, Democrats, or the scorecard makers for picking bad metrics. But if we're going to put these numbers on the table, it would be nice to see how all legislators, Republican and Democrat, shape up.
Such Republican–Democrat comparisons would help answer the practical question of how Republicans are supposed to vote. If the faux-Republicanry of posers like Novstrup, Gosch, and White really is so bad for the party and the state, shouldn't the platform scorecard point out to dissatisfied Republicans that they can get their party fix (and fix their party?) by voting for the Democrats running against those RINOs?
The Republicans in blue will dismiss this scorecard as they have dismissed past report cards. They can justify this dismissal by pointing to the anonymity of the scorecard. The compilers of this scorecard have told me their are afraid to put their names to their work for fear of retribution from the Governor and the GOP money machine. The scorecarders can claim they are simply posting voting records. But they couple those objective vote counts with subjective interpretations of the GOP platform. To give that interpretation credence, these scorecarders need to step forward and take ownership of that interpretation.
There are scorecards and there are scorecards.
These phony conservative scorecards are only hurting legitimate organizations that put a lot of time and effort into compiling voter scorecards. If anything these tactics are hurting the conservative cause more than helping it. I understand there are some Republicans who are not conservative, not pro-life, not fiscally responsible. It's important that the scorecards accurately reflect a legislators voting record and not simply try to push an agenda.
I have to agree it would have been nice to include non-Republican votes in the scorecard. But this scorecard does reflect what is true at the national level: the Republican Party no longer care about or fights for GOP principles. The Tea Party was a great opportunity for the party to split, but they kept it together. Having Noem be a 'face' of the Tea Party hasn't helped Tea Party members at all though, she appears to care nothing about the movement.
I think the same could be shown for Democrats and their core base. The Occupy movement says they have had 'victories'. However the Democratic party itself has treated the OWS movement as an outside fringe to be kept out of the spotlight. I've heard many Occupy member say they will change the party from within. The only thing I have to say there is ask Ron Paul how well that is working for him in the Republican party.
Personally I think people should watch the voting record of their legislatures. The more people become disenfranchised with the two big parties Independent or 3 parties. In an ideal world we would have at least a half dozen parties to choose from.
today's oxymoron: ideal world.
True its an oxymoron, but no more so than 'liberal Democrat' or 'conservative Republican'.
Welcome, Ken! I agree with the bulk of your opening comment: Noem doesn't care about the Tea Party beyond courting their vote; Occupy hasn't done nearly enough; more parties might serve us well.
But on "oxymorons," let's not play word games: I'm a liberal. I'm a Democrat. Stace Nelson is a conservative. He is a Republican. No contradictions there.
I don't believe he "Occupy" movement ever identified as being part of the Democratic Party. I think the Democratic Party identified with them, (or tried to), but not vice versa. The Occupy movement is, conversely a taste of what happens if our political parties continue to fail us.
Yeah, sorry about playing word games. I usually don't do that. Especially in this case where I think the terms do usually work with each other. I definitely do go commenting on blogs to antagonize. I mostly try to find blogs from perspectives other than my own to see if I'm missing that 'one key element' to prove me wrong.
The Occupy movement has really disappointed me. I recently moved back to SD from the Minneapolis area. Last year a friend took me to an Occupy even in St Pail. Even though I don't side with the Occupy movement I went with out of curiosity. To me so much of the Occupy statements I heard were more about how bad certain individuals or corporations are. However I was hearing little or no alternatives other than to vote against Republicans in the next cycle. This would then lead to support of the Democrat party as a way to punish the Republican party. This may not be true of all Occupy events, but it left that impression on me. I really wish they would form their own party.
I doubt the Tea Party will ever split. I think it would be good (although I wouldn't support them any more than I would Occupy). But the whole Tea Party movement has been hijacked by people like Noem. Its become almost more of a status symbol to get votes.
Don't know where I was going with any of this. At the core of everything I am trying to do anything but this Literature Review that is due tonight.
Even an older fellow like me with no printing skills can tell that rating golf card was put together by the same bad puttertogetherers the last one was. It was slopped through the disjointed minds of the usual group of Gordantically proportioned Howites and is bubbling with insanity. And Mr. Howie, you can tell your step brother I said so.
(Ken, as a proud ABD, I'm always happy to offer fruitful alternatives to writing literature reviews. ;-) )
The Tea Party is the GOP on steroids. Occupy should have been organizing to push for candidates and positions on the ballot the way the Tea Party did. I don't like the Tea Party, but they made a difference in the 2010 election. Occupy has missed an opportunity to make a similar impact... or, perhaps more accurately, the Democratic Party did not choose to astroturf the movement into an effective adjunct brand and agitation wing. (The Dems also didn't have money from the devious Koch Brothers to cultivate such astroturf.)
Good point. The Dem party missed out by not utilizing the OWS movement. I think part of that has to do with both parties having this "we must be united" approach taken this election. Maybe its just short-term memory, but I don't recall any election year where extreme ends of the party bases were so blatantly ignored.
And better news, got the Literature Review done. Days like today I wonder why I went back to school at my age (only one year of classes left, then the dreaded dissertation).
I'm not sure which I dislike more: that folks make these scorecards blasting their political enemies and create their own answer key to convince voters with made-up statistics OR that I didn't think of it first for my dad's campaign:
"Voters of South Dakota, in our recent Republican scorecard Val Rausch receives 5-Stars, a special sticker, and a smiley face, while Tim Begalka only received 1-Star, a skunk themed scratch-and-sniff sticker, and a frowny face with tears!"
This is a huge statistical sampling of Republican issues. From my understanding, emails were sent out to Republican groups/county partys across the state and input was solicited from Republicans across the state.
I am proud of my voting record and stand ready and able to explain to anyone of my constituents why I voted the way I did on their behalf, on the highlighted bills, or others. I agonize over every bill trying to determine which way to vote for the best interests of my district. I am ashamed of 5 of the votes I have made in the legislature and readily apologize and admit I was wrong in the way I voted. I succumbed to pressure to support the governor’s 2011 HB-1230, and voted the wrong way. My 2 votes ea for Val Rausch for Speaker & Brian Gosch for Pro Tem were HUGE mistakes and not in the best interest of my constituents.
Change the percent given and color my votes differently on this report and it does NOT change the way I feel. For example: I earned the scorn, derision, and denouncements from “pro-choice†groups, for supporting pro-life bills.
I brought two bills last session that would have required the LRC to place ALL recorded votes online and show an easy accessible cumulative voting record for each individual legislator, and the legislature as a whole. Some of the legislators, that did the worst on this report card, ensured those bills were killed in committee. There is no doubt in my mind that they did it so voters have a hard time seeing how they vote.
Bottom-line? Whether it is the record on one bill, multiple bills on any given issue, or every bill a legislator voted on, it is their record and they own it. If they can’t defend their record and have to attack the public’s right to know about how they voted, it is hard evidence that the report cards have hit dead center on the problem in the SDGOP.
Stealing an (R) to get elected, after being a life-long Democrat, does not make a legislator a Republican. Supporting Republican issues that mom & pop SD Republicans have indicated are important to them, that is what makes a Republican.
I will grant that this latest scorecard, in its scope and in the participation cited by Rep. Nelson, is a better scorecard than the previous three. And I'm all about making legislators explain their votes on legislation. That is the best test of whether we should keep a legislator in office or replace him with the other guy.
Still, I'd like to see the group producing this scorecard drop its secretive pretense. Tell us who you are. Make that information-gathering process public. Hold open meetings so we know the bills selected we really picked by "mom-and-pop Republicans" and not by some small clique with a power agenda.
Stace, so you don't think that a legislator can change his party and be sincere about that change?
You may be right, think about the Reagan. He was a union "thug" and Democrat, then he changed to Republican got elected and then raised taxes, increased the deficit, grew government and offered amnesty for undocumented workers from south of the border.
Heck, he even let terrorists bomb our embassies and attack our Marines:
"U.S. embassies and military personnel in the Middle East repeatedly came under brutal terrorist attack. The first bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut occurred in April 1983 and claimed 63 lives, 17 of them American. In September 1984, the U.S. Embassy Annex in Beirut, the de facto embassy, was bombed, with 24 dead. Sandwiched between these attacks was the better-known bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983, which killed 241, and the largely forgotten bombing, in December of that year, of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait."
Mr "H," I saw the email traffic of emails that were sent out to GOP groups and parties across SD, soliciting bills for the report card and then follow up emails listing the cited bills received and asking for further input on nominated bills. Probably one of the reason the wailing and gnashing of teeth on this one is being kept to a minimal. Additionally, all of that information was reposted on various blogs with public notification and request for input.
Jana, that is not what I said. With (R) registration numbers out pacing (D) #s in many districts, we are getting more and more people who change parties simply to run as an (R) to get elected. Sen Maher changed party registrations to (R), but it wasn't to get elected.
If the problems were revearsed, right leaning legislators claiming to be left leaning. I hardly think you and others would be happy simply accepting a registration letter as providence of left leaning fealty.
Stace, if I were going to try to run for office, I would change my registration from Democrat to Republican. Also, when I want to vote on who's going to hold an office of interest to me and there is no one in my party running, I would have no compunction about re-regestering so I could vote. The most important thing is the exercise of the voting franchise. The party affilliation is of little or no consequence in my opinion. The purpose of a political party is to win elections. When it gets to a point where one party wins all of them, party affiliation becomes irrelevant.
"Tell us who you are."
So that you will not have a future on the SDGOP, which means politicsl in South daktoa all toegether. The "Democrats Left Behind" have as much political power as the Tea Party...near zero. Too bad the DLBs don't understand that the government is not the solution, the government is the corporatists.
Bill, welcome to the establishment wing of the SD GOP. You would be in good company with many in office today.
I am in good company with most of my fellow South Dakotans, Stace. Everyone but the bigots. But that's THEIR problem. LOL.
Speaking of corporatists, where has Troy Jones been lately? Like to hear his spin on the 2012 scorecard. Or did he provide it before it came out? Wonder if Steve Hickey had an opportunity to provide input before the results came out?
"Everyone but the bigots."
Like those who hate Christian conservatives? Or are you applying Marcuse, tolerance to the left...intolerance to the white male Christian conservatives? The left's moral relativism...there is not black and white, untill it comes time to talk about race.