And
we here go, presenting the 2012 Louisiana Legislature Log voting index scorecard.
To make annual note of how the scorecard is constructed, the final chamber
votes on a bill are used, coded so that higher scores equal a
conservative/reform vote while lower scores indicates a liberal/populist vote.
Votes are selected on bills where there was controversy (defined as both
chambers having at least one yes and one no vote on them) and weighed in
accordance to the perceived importance of the bill. With one exception, as
negative votes are defined constitutionally as failure to meet the minimum
standard for passage of one half plus one of the seated membership of a
chamber, for a bill where an affirmative vote indicates a conservative/reform
vote, voting absent is scored as voting the liberal/populist preference, and
where an affirmative vote indicated a liberal/populist preference, voting
absent is scored as voting the conservative/reform way, except if a member has
taken leave that day, where the vote is not scored and the overall score
adjusted accordingly. Finally, because of the various different rationales governing
votes on finances, budget bills are not used in compiling the index.
Two
exceptions to the above apply. On SB 577, because the nature of the bill had
changed substantially when it got voted out of the Senate, the concurrence vote
was used. On SCR 99, those who did not vote were counted as absent since the
seated majority requirement does not apply to resolutions (as a court will soon
affirm), and scores adjusted.
The
bills used, most featured among this space’s good and bad ones, and their
weighings in index composition are as follows:
