Tea Party Uses MichiganVotes to Rank Legislators

The Macomb Daily reports that a local Tea Party group has used a free voting record “scorecard” tool on the MichiganVotes.org website to rate all state legislators on the basis of their votes on “core Tea Party issues.” The MichiganVotes scorecard feature can be used by any individual or group to create their own ratings. It automatically fills in the “yes” and “no” votes of all 110 state House and 38 state Senate members on bills selected by a user, and calculates a score based on the user’s definition of which vote is “correct.”

Using this feature, the Independent Tea Party Patriots of Clarkston gave its highest ratings to GOP Reps. Dave Agema, Ray Franz and Tom McMillin in the House, and Sen. Joe Hune in the Senate. The lowest scoring House Republicans were Reps. Ed McBroom, Peter Pettallia, Jud Gilbert, Margaret O'Brien, Wayne Schmidt and Dale Zorn. Sen. Rick Jones was the lowest ranked Senate Republican, followed by Tory Rocca, Geoff Hansen and Tom Casperson.

House Democrats ranged from Tim Melton at 50 percent “correct” on Tea Party issues down to three members tied at 9 percent. Senate Democrats ranged from Glenn Anderson at 21 percent to three senators tied at 11 percent.

The newspaper quoted ITPP organizer Kevin Chase, who said: “Too often, lawmakers talk one way back in their districts, but in Lansing tax, regulate and spend in ways contrary to what's needed to get Michigan back on the right track. With this tool, tea party supporters now have easy access to the facts they need to challenge their own legislators if they veer from the principles they promised to uphold — or commend them when they buck the special interests and do the right thing.”

The full ITPP scorecard showing the votes included and how every state legislator voted on each can be seen here.

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