Regular legislative session scores, 2022

With everything dealt with, and no veto session, the Louisiana Legislature Log presents its 2022 Louisiana Legislature scorecard. Thirteen bills were selected and weighed for computation. These were chosen mainly from the watch list compiled throughout the session. For a bill’s vote to be selected, in one chamber there had to be more than one legislator not voting for the winning or losing side.

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. In the case of constitutional amendments, the governor’s score was adjusted similarly.

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 criminal discrimination on the basis of vaccination status; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

HB 178 – would amend the Constitution to clarify that only citizens may vote; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

HB 190 – would make it easier to hoot up under the guise of medicine; a vote against connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

HB 194 – would create more educational choice for children with disabilities; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

HB 544 – would create additional crime deterrence by making it more difficult for habitual criminals to gain parole; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

HB 953 – would strengthen religious freedom protections for organizations; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

HB 1059 – would provide greater oversight on bail proceedings; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

SB 44 – would prevent discrimination against females in intercollegiate and scholastic sports; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

SB 141 – would prohibit insurers from using Wuhan coronavirus vaccination status as a criterion for coverage and rates; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

SB 142 – would provide for a minimum sentence for violent or sex offenders; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

SB 144 – would increase ballot security by make more strict hand delivery requirements; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

SB 342 – would bring clarity to the legal restriction of abortion allowing it only in cases of threat to the life of the mother or unborn, certain death of the unborn, or as a consequence of a futile pregnancy; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (10 percent).

SB 350 – would increase election integrity by ensuring improperly prepared ballots are challenged; a vote for connotes a conservative/reform preference (5 percent).

The scores follow, House first, but as always readers should not take these as absolute indicators of legislator ideology because these capture only votes, not other actions. For example, while in the House Republican state Rep. Barry Ivey scored perfectly for conservativism/reformism, he also acted in other ways contrary to that agenda. Similarly, GOP state Sen. Rogers Pope also scored perfectly in that way, but strategically declared he would not vote for overturning any veto in an override session, prompting many senators from his party to vote down holding such a session because, they claimed, without his vote and the planned absence of another prefect scorer, Republican state Sen. Bodi White, that there was no way any vetoes could be overridden. 

Bacala	100	Republican
Crews	100	Republican
Davis	100	Republican
Echols	100	Republican
Edmonds	100	Republican
Farnum	100	Republican
Firment	100	Republican
Frieman	100	Republican
Gadberry	100	Republican
Garafalo	100	Republican
Illg	100	Republican
Ivey	100	Republican
McFarland	100	Republican
Miguez	100	Republican
Riser	100	Republican
Schamerhorn	100	Republican
Schlegel	100	Republican
Seabaugh	100	Republican
Stefanski	100	Republican
Villio	100	Republican
Wheat	100	Republican
Amedee	95	Republican
Beaullieu	95	Republican
Borriaque	95	Republican
Butler	95	Republican
Coussan	95	Republican
Fontenot	95	Republican
Harris, L	95	Republican
Hilferty	95	Republican
Horton	95	Republican
Kerner	95	Republican
McCormick	95	Republican
McKnight	95	Republican
McMahen	95	Republican
Orgeron	95	Republican
Romero	95	Republican
St. Blanc	95	Republican
Thompson	95	Democrat
Turner	95	Republican
Zeringue	95	Republican
Bagley	94	Republican
Goudeau	94	Republican
Carrier	90	Republican
DeVillier	90	Republican
Edmonston	90	Republican
Huval	90	Republican
Mack	90	Republican
Miller, G	90	Republican
Mincey	90	Republican
Pressly	90	Republican
Hodges	89	Republican
Deshotel	85	Republican
Freiberg	85	Republican
Johnson, M	85	Republican
Owen, C	85	Republican
Emerson	80	Republican
Geymann	80	Republican
Magee	80	Republican
Schexnayder	80	Republican
Stagni	80	Republican
Tarver, P	80	Republican
Thomas	80	Republican
DuBuisson	75	Republican
Muscarello	75	Republican
Nelson	75	Republican
White, M.	75	Republican
Wright	75	Republican
Owen, R	70	Republican
Adams	67	Independent
Bishop	65	Republican
LaCombe	60	Democrat
Brown	50	Democrat
Cormier	50	Democrat
Hollis	50	Republican
Johnson, T	45	Democrat
Marino	45	Independent
Selders	40	Democrat
Fisher	39	Democrat
Bryant	35	Democrat
Carter, R	35	Democrat
Brass	30	Democrat
Landry	30	Democrat
Green	25	Democrat
Carter, W	20	Democrat
Glover	20	Democrat
Jenkins	20	Democrat
Jordan	20	Democrat
Miller, D	20	Democrat
Carpenter	15	Democrat
Jefferson	15	Democrat
Marcelle	11	Democrat
Boyd	10	Democrat
Duplessis	10	Democrat
Freeman	10	Democrat
Gaines	10	Democrat
Hughes	10	Democrat
LaFleur	10	Democrat
Lavardain	10	Democrat
Lyons	10	Democrat
Newell	10	Democrat
Phelps	10	Democrat
Pierre	10	Democrat
Cox	0	Democrat
Moore	0	Democrat
Willard	0	Democrat

Evident here is the continuation of a trend especially in the second term of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards: polarization. For the fourth consecutive year Republicans set a new record for highest score of 90.84 and for the third consecutive Democrats set a record for the lowest at 23.09. Unsurprisingly, the partisan gap for the chamber also hit a new all-time high of 67.74. By way of contrast, the historic (2004-present) GOP average is 72.45, Democrat average is 37.43, and therefore the gap averaging 34.92. Perhaps this should be expected with 21 Republican scoring perfectly joined by three Democrats at the other end. Partisan sorting again approached perfection, with just one Democrat, state Rep. Francis Thompson, appearing in the first 68 places and the remaining two Republicans tucked in at 70^th and 74^th place, with non-party state Reps. Roy Daryl Adams and Joe Marino in 69^th and 76^th, respectively. The first four Democrats all are whites, after which every other Democrat scored below 50 including the other three whites.

The pattern continued, on steroids, in the Senate:

Fesi	100	Republican
Foil	100	Republican
Hewitt	100	Republican
Mills, R	100	Republican
Mizell	100	Republican
Morris	100	Republican
Peacock	100	Republican
Pope	100	Republican
Reese	100	Republican
Talbot	100	Republican
White, B	100	Republican
Womack	100	Republican
Abraham	95	Republican
Bernard	95	Republican
Cortez	95	Republican
Milligan	95	Republican
Stine	95	Republican
Henry	95	Republican
Cathey	90	Republican
Connick	90	Republican
Hensgens	90	Republican
Mills, F	90	Republican
Ward	90	Republican
Allain	89	Republican
Cloud	83	Republican
Lambert	80	Republican
McMath	72	Republican
Smith	55	Democrat
Tarver, G	53	Democrat
Jackson	50	Democrat
Barrow	47	Democrat
Bouie	45	Democrat
Luneau	45	Democrat
Price	40	Democrat
Fields	36	Democrat
Harris, J	36	Democrat
Boudreaux	35	Democrat
Carter, G.	28	Democrat

Partisans sorted perfectly, with the lowest-scoring Republican 17 points higher than the highest scoring Democrat, one of the two whites. The other white Democrat scored in the middle of Democrats. For the second of three years after narrowly missing last year, Republicans scored a new high and with the highest score ever, 94.25, for a chamber as almost half of them scored perfectly on conservative/reform. Democrats also moved significantly higher, at 42.84 above their lifetime average. Even so, for the third year in a row a new highest partisan gap was established, at 51.41. Contrast these with the lifetime averages of 61.65 for Republicans, 39.56 for Democrats, and therefore a gap of 25.98

This scoring shot the Legislature’s average to it highest ever, for the second time in three years after narrowly missing last year, at 71.19. This was driven more by the Senate as the chamber gap was 11.14 points higher in its favor, the largest ever difference in that direction. Unsurprisingly, the partisan gap for the Legislature rose to its highest ever for the third consecutive year, of 63.88. That was twice as high as the lifetime average of 32.25, with the chambers’ lifetime average of 56.34 well exceeded.

Finally, going in the opposite direction was Edwards. Coming off last year’s all-time low, his score fell even further to 16 (for computational purposes, failure to sign a bill as in the case of SB 44 was treated as a veto). As was the case last year, a series of vetoes of high-profile conservative/reform legislation lay behind this. The result brings his lifetime score down to 42.86.

Until next time ….