Americans for Prosperity, the Big Business-funded and -controlled "grassroots" group (that's the definition of "astroturf" group) has released its 2009 scorecard, a rating of all of Arizona's legislators based on some arcane standard.
The group purports itself to be non-partisan, but the only two Republicans they gave a negative rating to were Sen. Carolyn Allen (LD8), one of the few real public servants in the GOP caucus, and Governor Jan Brewer, someone who has gleefully crippled the ability of Arizona state government to provide public services.
I can understand them not liking Sen. Allen; she really is the closest thing to a moderate voice in the entire AZGOP. But to go after Brewer, who has done more to cut public education and the social safety net in Arizona than any governor ever...?
Can you say "credibility problem"?
Anyway, back to the point of the post. Scorecards like this one, produced by anti-society advocacy groups, are best read from the bottom up.
The folks they give the lowest ratings to are the people that do the most to look out for their constituents and their state.
Read that way, the biggest Hero of Society is LD17's own state senator, Meg Burton Cahill.
And coming in at 6th and 7th place, as Champions of Society, are LD17's state representatives, Ed Ableser and David Schapira.
Oh, and for the record, the folks that AFP gave their highest ratings to (and the lowest by my standards, "Enemies of Society") are, you guessed it, ol' blog favorites state Sens. Russell Pearce (LD18), Chuck Gray (LD19), Sylvia Allen (LD5), and Jack Harper (LD4).
Of course.
Other legislative report cards include:
The Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club (2008 report card here)
East Valley Chambers of Commerce Alliance (note: only EV legislators covered)
3 comments:
Non-partisan doesn't mean that AFP Arizona (or any other political group) doesn't have a ideology.
Tom Jenny doesn't make his numbers up out of thin air. He looks at bills and how the legislators voted (and in brewers case what she signed or vetoed). Any elected Democrat has an equal opportunity to be graded as an Enemy of the State.
As for Brewer crippling public services the state government still employs tens of thousands of people and have laid off far fewer people than private companies have.
You are absolutely right that scorecards can be read in more than one way.
Thane, I just knew you would bite on this one.
There may still be a number of folks working for the State of Arizona, but any family thrown off of AHCCCS or who worked in a business near a now-closed state park might quibble with your implication that state services haven't been crippled.
As for AFP-AZ's criteria, I'm sure that their criteria is fairly applied.
Not so sure that it is fairly designed, however. On the other hand, it *is* their criteria, so they can craft it any way that they want.
If I was a business affected by a state park that has been closed then I would recommend agitating to have the park sold off or a concession contract issued so that those parks that the government has proved the be incapable of operating can be given a chance rather than locked away.
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