Cornerstone Scores Reps On Conservative Record

Two Amherst representatives received perfect scores from a conservative political action committee for their conservative record as lawmakers.

To help identify which conservative incumbents truly defended traditional values and protected the natural rights of families during the last two years in the Legislature, Cornerstone Action released its 2011-2012 Legislative Scorecard.

“Earlier this month, Cornerstone premiered its Families First Pledge to help distinguish which state candidates would promise to advance bills that preserve citizens’ rights of conscience and religion, protect innocent human life, defend the natural family and traditional marriage, restore the natural rights of parents to raise, educate and care for their own children, and enact free market economic policies to ensure prosperity in New Hampshire,” said Shannon McGinley, Cornerstone’s acting executive director. 

To rate each lawmaker on its 2011-2012 Legislative Scorecard, Cornerstone Action selected 39 roll call votes in the House and 20 roll call votes in the Senate from the just-completed biennial session of the Legislature.

“We hope voters will not just look at a legislator’s score and assume that an 85 percent or even a 90 percent score is adequate,” McGinley said. “We hope voters will look through our scorecard and identify where each lawmaker fell short, and perhaps even reach out to these legislators to ask them about their record. Then, based on that information, we hope voters will make informed decisions about whether their incumbent candidates are worth supporting again.”

To help supporters judge candidates based on the issues that matter to them most, Cornerstone’s scorecard arranges each of the 59 votes selected into one of four categories, and provides a category grade for each incumbent. For example:

• Votes on bills to repeal gay “marriage,” require parental consent before children can receive certain medical treatments, or create an education tax credit and scholarship program are indexed in a “family” category.
• Votes on bills to secure a woman’s right to know about the details of her planned abortion, to prohibit the use of state funds for abortions, or to prevent assisted suicide are labeled in a “life” category.
• Votes on bills to secure a religious exemption for contraceptive coverage in health insurance policies, to allow employees to choose whether they will pay for or join a union association, or to require the New Hampshire Attorney General to join the lawsuit opposing Obamacare are sorted in a “constitution” category.
• Votes on bills that cut $10 billion out of the state budget, repealed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, prevented funding of public television or phased in a defined contribution plan for state employees were grouped in a “fiscal” category.

The full scorecard can be downloaded here.