Legislative regular session wrapup and legislator scores

As indicated previously, of the good and bad bills selected for observation in the 2005 Regular Legislative Session of the Louisiana Legislature, 20 made it all the way to the governor who signed them all except HB 415 (see below). By category, and with a brief description, they are:

THE GOOD
HB 242 – places small but additional restrictions on abortion
HB 311 – makes for a thriftier state employee retirement system
HB 386 – lops off unneeded government agencies
HB 415 – rids the state of a costly, low-turnout January local election date
HB 654 – provides funds for I-49
SB 44 – places tighter controls on vehicle purchases by state officials
SB 53 – attempts to allow Louisiana federal elections to occur with the rest of the nation’s
SB 146 – slightly limits students’ access to junk foods at school
SB 323 – reforms indigent defense in the state

THE BAD
HB 21 – allows payment to members of the Allen Parish Tourism Commission
HB 219 – allows an additional surcharge on motor vehicle offices transactions
HB 560 – reduces the amount of information provided by the governor on her budget
HB 631 – corporate welfare for the sound recording industry
HB 731 – corporate welfare for the motion picture industry
HB 763 – places a floor on gasoline retail prices
HB 887 – sick tax of 1.5% on hospital revenues
SB 47 – empowers the Morehouse Parish Lake Commission to gather money to build another useless lake
SB 190 – makes into law state the standard that poor people get free medical care, everybody else has to spend almost everything they have first into order to get it
SB 246 – corporate welfare for the rubber manufacturing industry
SB 341 – corporate welfare for the interactive digital media industry

In addition, there is one other vote of overriding importance. That was Republican-sponsored amendments to provide pay raises for educators without raising taxes. This was not one of the bills tracked in the Log since HB 1 is impossible to evaluate as a whole and passes usually close to unanimously. The devil is in the details for sure here, and these amendments in each chamber really spell out the priorities of legislators.

Altogether, this provides 21 votes on which to assess the performance of each legislator. However, some are more important than others, so, in my own judgment, I have devised a weighing where the educator pay vote is worth 6, four next most important votes are worth 4, the four next most important 3, the four next most important 2, and the eight least important worth one. Here’s is the way I judge the importance of these votes:

6X – vote #145 on Tucker amendment or vote #968 on Schedler amendment
4X – HB 887, HB 242, HB 311, HB 763
3X – SB 654, HB 386, SB 44, HB 219
2X – SB 323, SB 47, HB 560, HB 415
1X – HB 631, HB 731, SB 246, SB 53, SB 146, SB 190, SB 341, HB 21

So from this, an index may be constructed for each legislator where a maximum score of 100 means a legislator has voted in the best interests of the state’s people on every key vote while a 0 means voting against the state’s people’s best interests on every occasion. Absent votes for bills are counted as “no” votes (because an absence is treated as a “no” vote), so they have a negative impact on votes for good bills but a positive impact for votes on bad bills. Scores are computed from the last vote for final passage in the chamber.

Some interesting things to note on this list reproduced below:

I am a stern taskmasker, so the top scorers in each chamber, Rep. Ernie Alexander and Sen. Max Malone, are not close to scoring perfectly

Partisans tend to vote alike, particularly in the Senate. The typical House Republican averages 64.4 while the typical House Democrat averages 43.3; the typical Senate Republican averages 59.9 while the typical Senate Democrat averages 40.4

Thus, the typical senator (47.6) is more liberal than the typical representative (51.6), while the typical Republican scores about a 63 and the typical Democrat about a 42.

In the House, only four Republicans fell below the score of 50 while just one did so in the Senate. The two real outliers, Rep. Tom McVea and Sen. Sherri Cheek, are so out of step with their Republican counterparts that it begs the question whether they really are Republicans

In the House, of the 18 presumed “conservative” Democrats (defined as those who scored 50 or better), only six are not term-limited for 2007, while two of the four presumed “liberal” Republicans (defined as those who scored below 50) are – assuming that incumbency has helped keep these people in office and that voters will seek replacements that are more ideologically consistent with their labels, the GOP can expect a 10-seat pickup in the House in 2007

Using the same logic in the Senate, there is no change as the three “misplaced” senators will still be eligible to run in 2007

Finally, the list (excuse the formatting which is difficult to transfer to the blog format; the first set are House members, the second set the senators):

Name Party Score
Alexander Republican 80
Scalise Republican 76
Erdey Republican 74
Pitre Republican 74
White Republican 74
Bowler Republican 72
Katz Republican 72
Strain Republican 72
Waddell Republican 72
Winston Republican 72
Burns Republican 70
Greene Republican 70
Powell, M Republican 70
Trahan Republican 70
Walsworth Republican 70
Crowe Republican 68
Dove Republican 68
Geymann Republican 68
LaBruzzo Republican 68
Kleckley Republican 66
Lambert Republican 66
Smith, JH Republican 66
Baudoin Democrat 64
Bruneau Republican 64
Schneider Republican 64
Smiley Republican 64
Tucker Republican 64
Hebert Democrat 62
Daniel Democrat 60
Fannin Democrat 60
Frith Democrat 60
Martiny Republican 60
Beard Republican 58
Downs Republican 58
Faucheux Democrat 58
Smith, G Democrat 58
Wright Democrat 58
Kennard Republican 56
Lancaster Republican 56
Morrish Democrat 56
Robideaux Independent 56
Walker Democrat 56
Durand Democrat 54
Hopkins Democrat 54
LaFleur Democrat 54
Bruce Democrat 52
Powell, T Republican 52
Ansardi Democrat 50
Curtis Democrat 50
Johns Republican 50
St. Germain Democrat 50
Triche Democrat 50
Hutter Republican 48
Salter Democrat 48
Thompson Democrat 48
Toomy Republican 48
Baldone Democrat 46
Carter, R Democrat 46
Crane Republican 46
Cravins,Jr. Democrat 46
Damico Democrat 46
Dartez Democrat 46
Hunter Democrat 46
Kenney Democrat 46
Pierre Democrat 46
Ritchie Democrat 46
Romero, R Democrat 46
Smith. JD Democrat 46
Cazayoux Democrat 44
Farrar Democrat 44
Glover Democrat 44
McDonald Democrat 44
Smith, JR Democrat 44
Burrell Democrat 42
Guillory, E Democrat 42
Morrell Democrat 42
Barrow Democrat 40
Baylor Democrat 40
Jackson, M Democrat 40
Jefferson Democrat 40
Townsend Democrat 40
Badon Democrat 38
Dorsey Democrat 38
Gray Democrat 38
Hammett Democrat 38
Heaton Democrat 38
Honey Democrat 38
McVea Republican 38
Quezaire Democrat 38
Wooton Democrat 38
Alario Democrat 36
Carter, K Democrat 36
Guillory, M Democrat 36
LaFonta Democrat 36
Marchand Democrat 36
Odinet Democrat 36
Hill Democrat 34
DeWitt Democrat 32
Doerge Democrat 32
Gallot Democrat 32
Montgomery Democrat 32
Pinac Democrat 32
Richmond Democrat 32
Arnold Democrat 30

Malone Republican 76
Romero, C Republican 74
Dardenne Republican 72
Boasso Republican 66
Barham Republican 64
Schedler Republican 64
Michot Republican 60
Cain Republican 58
Marionneaux Democrat 58
Theunissen Republican 58
Lentini Republican 56
Amedee Democrat 54
Fontenot Republican 52
Hollis Republican 50
Kostelka Republican 50
Adley Democrat 48
Chaisson Democrat 46
Gautreaux,N Democrat 44
Duplessis Democrat 42
Dupre Democrat 42
Heitmeier Democrat 42
Murray Democrat 42
Smith, M Democrat 42
Ullo Democrat 42
Cravins,Sr. Democrat 40
Gautreaux,B Democrat 40
Nevers Democrat 40
Bajoie Democrat 38
Cheek Republican 38
Ellington Democrat 38
McPherson Democrat 38
Jackson, L Democrat 36
Broome Democrat 34
Fields Democrat 34
Hines Democrat 34
Jones Democrat 34
Mount Democrat 34
Shepherd Democrat 28