The highs and lows of conservative report card
Maureen Dolan Staff Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 years, 5 months AGO
The most conservative state senator in Idaho lives in Dalton Gardens, according to the American Conservative Union Foundation.
Sen. Steve Vick in District 2 was the highest scoring senator in the American Conservative Union’s ranking of Idaho lawmakers’ voting records during the 2017 legislative session.
“Grades came out this week; 100%. Woohoo! The only one in the Senate. Still working hard to preserve freedom,” Vick, a Republican, tweeted Thursday morning.
Based in Washington, D.C., the ACU is a political organization that advocates and lobbies for conservative principles and candidates.
“ACU researched and selected a range of bills before the Idaho Legislature that determine a member’s adherence to conservative principles,” states the group’s website regarding its scoring method.
Vick and just one other member of the Idaho Senate, Sen. Dan Foreman of Moscow, received scores high enough — 90 percent or greater — to receive the ACU’s “award for conservative excellence.”
In the House, 16 state representatives made the “conservative excellence” list including Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, who also scored 100 percent, and Rep. Ron Mendive, a Coeur d’Alene Republican in District 3, who scored 94 percent.
Kootenai County Republican legislators scoring 80 to 89 percent are Sen. Bob Nonini, Rep. Vito Barbieri and Rep. Don Cheatham.
The average score in the Idaho Senate is 61 percent. For Republican senators the average is 66 percent and for Democrats it’s 38 percent. The average score in the House is 63 percent with Republicans scoring an average 68 percent while the average Democrat’s score is 31 percent.
Other local state lawmakers’ scores include Sen. Mary Souza, 75 percent; Rep. Paul Amador, 50 percent; Rep. Eric Redman, 47 percent; and Rep. Luke Malek, 33 percent.
Despite his low score this year, Malek’s lifetime average is 65 percent. But the Coeur d’Alene Republican doesn’t pay much heed to the rankings.
Malek said he received the email notifying him the report was available, but he didn’t open it, and he doesn’t intend to.
He said he does not think a special interest group from out-of-state can appropriately gauge how effectively a legislator serves his state.
“My constituents know I’ve never been very obedient to special interests,” Malek said.
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