Being that passage of bills depends upon the
seated membership of a body, not voting is counted as a negative vote. However,
if a legislator had a leave of absence granted for that day, his absent votes
weren’t counted for bills voted on that day and the score adjusted to take that
into account.
Here are the bills with votes for final passage in
every case on which the scorecard was computed, with the conservative/reform
position and the weighing indicated:
HB 54 –
would make for more realistic recall provisions; a conservative/reform vote is
for (10 percent)
HB 88 –
would create greater disincentive to commit benefits fraud; a
conservative/reform vote is for (10 percent)
HB 265 –
would weaken incentives for felon reform; a conservative/reform vote is against
(15 percent)
HB 321 –
would increase government transparency; a conservative/reform vote is for (10
percent)
HB 413 –
would raise TOPS standards and create a transfer award; a conservative/reform
vote is for (10 percent)
HB 579 –
would expand needlessly medical marijuana; a conservative/reform vote is
against (5 percent)
HB 823 –
would remove an oversight opportunity from the medical marijuana program; a
conservative/reform vote is against (5 percent)
HB 891 – would
prevent abortion providers from funneling indirectly public dollars to the
practice; a conservative/reform vote is for (10 percent)
SB 364 –
would strengthen free expression protections in higher education; a
conservative/reform vote is for (10 percent)
SB 380 –
would expand wastefully TOPS; a conservative/reform vote is against (10
percent)
SB 462 –
would create incentives building more housing; a conservative/reform vote is
for (15 percent)
The theme for the 2018 regular session seemed to
be polarization, perhaps because of the stridency of Gov. John Bel Edwards’
insistence on funding larger government. Even as this blog doesn’t track the
budget and tax measures can’t be considered during regular sessions in these
even-numbered years, likely that conflict permeated to other issues.
One way this manifested was in the average
legislator scores by party. Combining chambers, Republicans averaged over 79
while Democrats had a mean of under 37. Interestingly, only small inter-chamber
differences emerged, with Republican senators fewer than three points lower
than representatives, while Senate Democrats scored less than a point higher
than their House co-partisans. Overall, this separated the chambers by a
miniscule quarter-point.
However, the gap approaching 43 points isn’t a
record, as 2012 saw a slightly wider margin. Still, the GOP average was the
highest in history (going back to 2004), although Democrats have scored
significantly lower three times, including last year.
Driving that Republican level was an unprecedented
12 representatives and five senators scoring 100 (none did last year). By
contrast for Democrats, only state Sen. Yvonne Colomb
scored zero – and that came from a single vote. On the other nine, she had an
excused absence and didn’t vote. Among Democrats, only state Rep. Marcus Hunter
scored in the single digits.
As another sign of polarization, of the House GOP
only three Republicans scored below 50 while 43 Republicans scored higher than
the highest-scoring Democrat, state Rep. Andy Anders.
Only four other Democrats joined him scoring above 50. In two GOP cases, this
could be explained by a number of missed votes. In the Senate, missed votes
also explained the lowest scoring Republican, the only one below 50, state Sen.
Ryan Gatti.
Only three Democrats scored above 50, with the highest, state Sen. John Milkovich,
outscored by 15 Republicans.
The House:
Bacala
|
100
|
Republican
|
Edmonds
|
100
|
Republican
|
Garafalo
|
100
|
Republican
|
Harris, L
|
100
|
Republican
|
Havard
|
100
|
Republican
|
Hazel
|
100
|
Republican
|
Hodges
|
100
|
Republican
|
Horton
|
100
|
Republican
|
Morris, Jim
|
100
|
Republican
|
Pugh
|
100
|
Republican
|
Pylant
|
100
|
Republican
|
Schexnayder
|
100
|
Republican
|
Amedee
|
95
|
Republican
|
Hilferty
|
95
|
Republican
|
Huval
|
95
|
Republican
|
Ivey
|
95
|
Republican
|
Stokes
|
95
|
Republican
|
DeVillier
|
90
|
Republican
|
Mack
|
90
|
Republican
|
Miguez
|
90
|
Republican
|
Muscarello
|
90
|
Republican
|
Seabaugh
|
90
|
Republican
|
Thomas
|
90
|
Republican
|
Davis
|
89
|
Republican
|
Crews
|
89
|
Republican
|
Bagley
|
85
|
Republican
|
Berthelot
|
85
|
Republican
|
Falconer
|
85
|
Republican
|
Magee
|
85
|
Republican
|
McFarland
|
85
|
Republican
|
Pearson
|
85
|
Republican
|
Stefanski
|
85
|
Republican
|
Wright
|
85
|
Republican
|
Barras
|
80
|
Republican
|
Brown, T
|
80
|
Independent
|
Carmody
|
80
|
Republican
|
Coussan
|
80
|
Republican
|
Henry
|
80
|
Republican
|
Landry, N
|
80
|
Republican
|
Simon
|
80
|
Republican
|
Morris, Jay
|
79
|
Republican
|
Emerson
|
75
|
Republican
|
Howard
|
75
|
Republican
|
Pope
|
75
|
Republican
|
Abraham
|
70
|
Republican
|
Anders
|
70
|
Democrat
|
Carter, S
|
70
|
Republican
|
Hoffman
|
70
|
Republican
|
Bishop, S
|
65
|
Republican
|
Chaney
|
65
|
Republican
|
Dwight
|
65
|
Republican
|
Foil
|
65
|
Republican
|
Guinn
|
65
|
Republican
|
Leopold
|
65
|
Republican
|
Miller, G
|
65
|
Republican
|
Talbot
|
65
|
Republican
|
Connick
|
60
|
Republican
|
Billiot
|
55
|
Democrat
|
Brown, C
|
55
|
Democrat
|
Reynolds
|
55
|
Democrat
|
White, M
|
55
|
Democrat
|
Zeringue
|
55
|
Republican
|
Danahay
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Gisclair
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Hill
|
50
|
Independent
|
Hollis
|
50
|
Republican
|
LeBas
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Norton
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Stagni
|
50
|
Republican
|
Marino
|
47
|
Independent
|
Richard
|
47
|
Independent
|
Carter, R
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Jones
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Thibaut
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Abramson
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Brass
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Carpenter
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Franklin
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Hall
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Harris, J
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Jackson
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Lyons
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Pierre
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Shadoin
|
35
|
Republican
|
Jenkins
|
35
|
Democrat
|
Armes
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Bouie
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Carter, G
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Cox
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Gaines
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Glover
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Hensgens
|
30
|
Republican
|
Johnson
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Jordan
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Landry, T
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Cromer
|
25
|
Republican
|
Duplessis
|
22
|
Democrat
|
Bagneris
|
20
|
Democrat
|
James
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Jefferson
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Leger
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Marcelle
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Miller, D
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Smith
|
10
|
Democrat
|
Hunter
|
5
|
Democrat
|
And the Senate:
Appel
|
100
|
Republican
|
Erdey
|
100
|
Republican
|
Hewitt
|
100
|
Republican
|
Peacock
|
100
|
Republican
|
Walsworth
|
100
|
Republican
|
Donahue
|
90
|
Republican
|
Lambert
|
89
|
Republican
|
Fannin
|
87
|
Republican
|
Long
|
85
|
Republican
|
Allain
|
80
|
Republican
|
Mizell
|
80
|
Republican
|
Claitor
|
75
|
Republican
|
Perry
|
75
|
Republican
|
Riser
|
75
|
Republican
|
Cortez
|
72
|
Republican
|
Alario
|
70
|
Republican
|
Milkovich
|
70
|
Democrat
|
White, B
|
70
|
Republican
|
Chabert
|
65
|
Republican
|
Johns
|
65
|
Republican
|
Mills
|
65
|
Republican
|
Smith, G
|
65
|
Democrat
|
Smith, J
|
65
|
Republican
|
Morrish
|
64
|
Republican
|
Martiny
|
60
|
Republican
|
Thompson
|
60
|
Democrat
|
Ward
|
55
|
Republican
|
Tarver
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Luneau
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Gatti
|
40
|
Republican
|
LaFleur
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Bishop, W
|
35
|
Democrat
|
Carter, T
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Morrell
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Price
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Barrow
|
25
|
Democrat
|
Boudreaux
|
22
|
Democrat
|
Peterson
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Colomb
|
0
|
Democrat
|
Finally, Edwards racked up a 44, which about fits
his average of just under 47 for his three years. This makes him a bit less
liberal/populist than the typical legislative Democrat, but much less
conservative/reformist than the typical Republican legislator.
So, the Log bows out for another year.
