December 23, 2005
Seventeen
Republicans Make the Grade
on Heritage Alliance Scorecard for 2005
By
Mike Hailey
Capitol
Inside Editor
The most standard litmus test for gauging lawmakers'
political orientation and philosophical leanings
is usually the party they represent. Republicans
are usually conservative and Democrats typically
are not.
In the most extensive analysis of legislative
voting records conducted so far this year in Texas,
the Heritage Alliance
reaffirmed that rule of thumb with the release
of a new report card on which the 85 most conservative
Texas House members in 2005 were all Republicans
and the 61 least conservative state representative
all had a D by their names. The only exceptions
to the trend were one other Republican and two
House Democrats who were tied in the middle and
Speaker Tom Craddick who scored
in the same league with liberal Democrats because
he didn't vote on most legislation unless breaking
ties or making a symbolic statement.
Republican State Reps. Charlie Howard
of Sugar Land and Jim Jackson
of Carrollton received the highest grades from
Heritage Alliance, which used to be known as the
Free Enterprise PAC - or FreePac. The group is
still led by veteran conservative activist Richard
Ford of Dallas.
Republican State Senators Troy Fraser
of Horseshoe Bay, Jane Nelson of
Lewisville and Todd Staples of
Palestine tied for the most conservative Senate
score by taking the side advocated by Ford's organization
89 percent of the time.
Republican State Rep. Charlie Geren
of Fort Worth was the only Republican House member
to vote against positions backed by the conservative
Heritage Alliance more than he supported them
on the votes examined for this year's ratings.
No House Democrats voted the conservative line
more than they opposed it even though State Reps.
Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville
and Patrick Rose of Dripping
Springs came the closest by supporting positions
favored by Heritage Alliance 48 percent of the
time. Geren tied Hopson and Rose to stake claims
to the titles of least conservative Republican
and most conservative Democrats respectively on
the Heritage Alliance report cards issued for
2005.
With the exception of Geren and Craddick, who
received a score of 10 because he seldom voted,
every House Republican scored higher than every
Democratic member in the final tally of votes
that Heritage Alliance put under the microscope
this year.
The group based its biennial ratings on 52 votes
cast in the Texas House and 28 recorded in the
Senate on a wide range of issues this year. None
of the other conservative political organizations
that analyze legislative voting records in Texas
considered as many separate votes as Heritage
Alliance examined for its scorecard this year.
The same general partisan trend held true in
the Senate, where no Republican member had a lower
score than any of their Democratic colleagues
and no Democrat received a higher grade than any
senator who represents the GOP. State Senators
John Carona of Dallas and Jeff
Wentworth of San Antonio - had the lowest
scores of any Republicans with a pair of 64s -
the same grade posted by Democratic State Senator
Ken Armbrister of Victoria.
State Rep. Paul Moreno, a veteran
El Paso Democrat who has more seniority in the
House than any member other than Craddick, had
the least conservative score in the House after
agreeing with Heritage Alliance only four percent
of the time on selective votes cast. Democratic
State Senator Judith Zaffirni
of Laredo tied State Senators John Whitmire
of Houston and Eliot Shapleigh
of El Paso with low scores of 11 on the Senate
side.
Seventeen House members scored 90 or above on
the Heritage Alliance analysis while the highest
grades in the Senate were made by the three Republicans
who fell one point short of that particular threshold.
Eight Senate Democrats had the lowest scores in
their respective chamber with grades ranging from
11 percent to 14 percent. Five Democratic House
members - State Reps. Roberto Alonzo
of Dallas, Garnet Coleman of
Houston, Jessica Farrar of Houston,
Terri Hodge of Dallas and the
late Joe Moreno of Houston - each had grades of
eight percent to tie for the second most liberal
behind Paul Moreno.
Six House Republicans - State Reps. Leo
Berman of Tyler, Carl Isett of
Lubbock, Jodie Laubenberg of
Wylie, Jerry Madden of Plano,
Ken Paxton of McKinney and Robert
Talton of Pasadena - graded out at 92
percent to tie for third place in the most conservative
sweepstakes.
State Reps. Pat Haggerty of
El Paso and Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton
of Mauriceville were the second and third most
liberal Republicans behind Geren with scores of
56 percent and 58 percent respectively. State
Rep. Robby Cook of Eagle Lake
was the House's third most conservative Democrat
with a score of 46 percent.
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