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.