NH HRA Ratings and Efffectiveness: Top 15

NH State Rep. JR Hoell earned a 99% rating from the NH House Republican Alliance, for "supporting the party position." In other words, he voted the way he was told. I decided to take a look at the bills Rep. Hoell sponsored and how many of those bills passed. None, as it turns out.

A reader asked me to give the same treatment to some of the other legislators on House Republican Alliance voter scorecard, and I agreed. 

Without further ado, the top 15:

100% rated Moe Villeneuve sponsored zero bills. 

100% rated Ralph Boehm sponsored 13 bills. 7 failed, 3 passed, and 3 went to interim study. 

100% rated Carol McGuire sponsored 25 bills. 7 failed, 12 passed, 2 tabled, 4 went to interim study. 

100% rated Stephen Palmer sponsored 2 bills. Both passed. 

100% rated Jane "Carpetbag" Cormier resigned at the end of the session. Her profile (profiles include a listing of bills sponsored) is no longer online at the State House website, which is true of everyone who resigns. 

100% rated Richard Meaney resigned before the end of session. 

100% rated Gary Azarian resigned before the end of session. 

99.2% rated Pamela Tucker sponsored 17 bills. 12 failed, 4 passed, 1 sent to interim study. 

99.1% rated Gary Daniels sponsored 7 bills. 2 died, 3 passed, 1tabled, 1 died in committee of conference. 

99% rated JR Hoell.

99% rated Jeanine Notter sponsored 13 bills. 7 failed, 4 passed, 1 tabled, 1 interim study. 

99% rated  Laura Jones sponsored 17 bills.  5 failed, 7 passed, 2 tabled,  3 interim study. 

98.3% rated Dan McGuire sponsored 19 bills. 13 died, 6 passed. 

98.3% rated Robbie Parsons sponsored one bill. It failed. 

98.3% rated Emily Sandblade sponsored 20 bills. 10 died, 4 passed 2 tabled, 3 interim study, and 1 died in committee of conference. 

98.2% rated Dan Itse sponsored 39 bills. 33 of them failed, 3 passed, 1 tabled, 2 went to interim study.


This is - at best - a very crude tool for assessing the effectiveness of a legislator. Everything depends on what the legislator's goal is. If the goal is to pass legislation, than some of these people aren't doing very well. If the goal is just to propose a lot of nuisance legislation and gum up the works, those same people are raving successes. 

One final GOP legislator - an old pro,  just for contrast:

82.3% rated Gene Chandler sponsored 33 bills. 11 failed, 17 passed, 2 tabled, 2 interim study, and 1 died in the committee of conference.  

Food for thought. 


ht/li

Is Marching in Party Lockstep Effective Legislating?

The NH House Republican Alliance has released their legislative scorecard. From the Concord Monitor we learn that: 

Area Republican Reps. JR Hoell of Dunbarton and Carol McGuire of Epsom ranked in the top 10, supporting the party position on 118 selected bills 97.6 and 99 percent of the time, respectively.

JR Hoell was ranked as marching in party lockstep 99% of the time. 

What the folks at HRA didn't look at is effectiveness. How effective a legislator is Representative Hoell?

He sponsored 35 bills in 2014. Of those bills, 29 were voted ITL. That means inexpedient to legislate, which means the bill was killed. Another 4 of Hoell's bills went to interim study, which is often where bills go to die. Two of his bills were tabled. 

Not one of the bills sponsored by Rep. Hoell actually passed. 


At the  NH General Court website, you can look up legislators and find the bills they sponsored and their voting records. Click on find your legislator, then house roster, and use the drop down menu to find the list of state representatives. 

NH House Republican Alliance Legislator Ratings

The NH House Republican Alliance just came out with their rankings of state representatives, based on 100 votes. All those roll call votes were essential to this process. This is how they explain the ratings system on their website:

 A grade of 100% indicates that a legislator voted in perfect conformity to the NH State Constitution, traditional Republican values, and the NH State Party Platform.  On the other hand, a grade of 0% indicates that a legislator never voted with the NH State Constitution, traditional Republican values, or the NH State Party Platform.

Let's just say that Nate Silver isn't going to be calling them for ideas on gathering polling data. The scorecard does have some interesting results. According to the Concord Monitor:

Majority Leader Steve Shurtleff, a Penacook Democrat who participated in all 100 votes, scored 16 percent.

Six Republicans had perfect, 100 percent ratings: Jeanine Notter of Merrimack, Moe Villeneuve of Bedford, Emily Sandblade of Manchester, Joe Duarte of Candia, Daniel Tamburello of Londonderry and Kyle Tasker of Nottingham.

The highest-ranked Democrat was Michael Garcia of Nashua, at 87.5 percent – he frequently sides with the GOP caucus. The lowest-ranked Republican was Carolyn Gargasz of Hollis, at 40.7 percent, followed by David Kidder of New London at 44.7 percent.

What the Monitor doesn't point out is also interesting. Emily Sandblade, one of the perfect 100% rated Republicans is a Free Stater. So is Michael Garcia, the high ranking Democrat. There's a reason he "frequently sides with the GOP caucus." He's not actually a Democrat. He ran as a Democrat so that he could get elected in his district. (He would have come under much more scrutiny as a Republican. The Democratic Party has turned a blind eye to Free State fauxDems.)  Garcia's HRA rating is higher than that of Gene Chandler - the House Minority Leader, and lifetime conservative Republican. 

Free Stater and fauxDem Tim O'Flaherty got a 75.8% rating from the HRA. He voted "right" 69 times out of the 91 votes he cast. Free Stater Democrat Joel Winters voted right 63 times, and scored a 63% from the HRA, on his 100 votes. 

Free State Republican Mark Warden voted right 80 times, and scored a 90.9% from the HRA on 88 votes. Other Free State Republicans: Laura Jones voted right 92 times out of 100, and received a 92% rating from the HRA. Dan McGuire voted right 93 times out of 97 votes and scored a 95.9% rating. Calvin Pratt voted right 84 times out of 85, and got a 98.8% rating. Carol McGuire voted right 99 times out of 100, and got a 99% rating. 

It is interesting to note that Kyle Tasker, who failed to vote for months, even if he was present, scored a perfect NHRA 100%. Tasker voted right 37 times. Of course he only voted 37 times out of 100. Where was young Tasker when he wasn't voting? Practicing his quick draw skills in the hallway perhaps?

Other GOP notables:

JR Hoell voted right 83 times out of 85, and rated a 97.6%. Disgraced former speaker Bill O'Brien (who refused a committee assignment this year) voted right 85 times out of 87, and earned a 97.7% rating. Goobernatorial candidate George Lambert voted right 90 times out of 91, which gave him a 98.9% score. Rep. John Burt voted "right" 99 times out of 100 and got a 99% score. Former State Rep. Stella Tremblay voted right 54 times out of 83, and earned a 91.5% score. 

A legislator in line and marching in lockstep with the Tea Party/John Birch/Free Stater ideology of today's NH GOP is going to have a high score, regardless of party affiliation. 

These are not folks concerned with what is best for the state. They're concerned with adhering to the ideology of the freedumb and libertea crowd. Their agenda seems to consist of GUNS, GUNS, GUNS, regulating ovaries and voters, GUNS, no new or increased revenue sources, GUNS, and did I mention, GUNS?

The scoring system doesn't reward effective legislators. Jeanine Notter sponsored 10 bills this year. Seven were ITL'd (voted inexpedient to legislate) and three were retained in committee. Kyle Tasker, another 100% rated legislator sponsored 7 bills. Of those 7 bills, 2 passed and one was retained. One concerned home wine production, and two concerned marijuana. Again, not an effective legislator, but clearly one who enjoys recreational drugs. Emily Sandblade sponsored 5 bills. Three were ITL'd, one is retained in committee, and one passed.

Apparently as ineffectual (and in Tasker's case, weirdly absent) as they all are, they voted for the freedumb version of the CONSTATOOSHUN and that's all that matters.