There are at least FOUR conservative organizations that keep scorecards based on congressional voting records. One thing you should know is that of the FOUR popular scorecards, THREE pre-anounce that a vote is being scored before the vote happens. Im glad they do, because their pressure often causes a lot of otherwise not-so-diligent congressmen to vote more conservatively. In other words, the congressmen want to keep their scores up, so they vote the way of the scorecard. But on the 1,000 or so votes that arent scored, some of the same high scoring congressmen often vote less conservatively. Shortly after coming to congress, I witnessed the tremendous power these key vote announcements have on congressmen… and I felt the pressure myself. Who doesnt want a perfect score?! But I also witnessed that sometimes these organizations make real mistakes because their staffs are human too and they often have less than a day to read the bills too. And occasionally they weigh political strategy over principle more than I would (and sometimes vice versa). Therefore I have forbidden my staff to tell me before the vote whether the vote is being scored by one of the three organizations that pre-announce. Unless its my legislation thats being scored… in which case I want to tell the other congressmen theyre being scored! The scorecard Im linking is the ONE of the FOUR that does not announce which votes are being scored before the vote, so theres really no way to game the scorecard, other than by reading the bills and by consistently voting based on constitutional principles. The other reason Im linking this scorecard… so far they have rated me higher than any other congressman for the 113th congress. lol.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:19:31 +0000
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