How conservative groups rated four potential Senate contenders in 2012
Member: Broun Gingrey Kingston Price
American Conservative Union 100 96 88 100
Americans for Prosperity 95 91 77 91
Club For Growth 100 89 85 86
FreedomWorks 100 82 63 88
Heritage Action 96 85 71 78
How liberal groups rated Atlanta-area Democrats in 2012
Member: Lewis, Johnson, David Scott
AFL-CIO 95 100 90
League of Conservation Voters 97 91 83
NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 100 100
What the scorekeepers want
Here’s how their websites describe these groups’ goals
American Conservative Union — "liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values, and strong national defense"
Americans for Prosperity — "limited government and free markets"
Club for Growth — "a high growth economy and a swift return to America's founding principles"
FreedomWorks – "lower taxes, less government, and more freedom"
Heritage Action – "the principles that made America great".
AFL-CIO — "decent paychecks and benefits, safe jobs, respect and fair treatment" for workers
League of Conservation Voters – " to turn environmental values into national priorities"
NARAL Pro-Choice America – to protect "your ability to make private decisions, like choosing legal abortion.
Report card season has arrived for members of Congress, as a slew of outside groups deliver yearly scorecards to gauge how lawmakers stack up on key issues.
The 2012 report cards have a particular resonance in the early days of the Republican contest to replace Georgia U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. As many as four current U.S. House members could be GOP candidates, jockeying to show off their conservative bona fides ahead of a July 2014 primary.
With the practiced cool of high schoolers, the members say they do not strive for good grades, while still celebrating high scores.
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun of Athens, the only officially declared candidate in the race so far, issued a press release trumpeting his 100 percent rating from the Club For Growth. That means he took the side the group supported on every vote it tracked.
“I don’t vote for ratings,” Broun said in an interview. “What I do is vote according to the Constitution and what’s right for Georgians and what’s right for America.”
He added that high ratings are “very helpful” to his campaign and told how he met with the Club For Growth in 2011 to explain a vote that went against its recommendation. In that case, Broun voted against the “Cut, Cap and Balance” budget plan because it would have allowed a debt ceiling increase — placing him to the right of the Club.
Rutgers University political science professor Ross Baker, who studies Congress, said scorecards oversimplify complex issues and thus can paint a misleading picture, but they are quite influential.
“What it does, really, is it empowers these interest groups,” Baker said. “The media tend to pick up on them, and certainly they influence candidates.”
Members are careful not to appear beholden to anyone besides their constituents. In a statement through a spokeswoman, Republican U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta said, “If I vote the conservative conscience of my district, I’m confident the scores and ratings will take care of themselves.”
Many groups pressure Congress by issuing “key vote” alerts before votes that are tallied and used for political purposes.
“I think in today’s political climate that these outside rating groups are more important because now it’s not just an academic thing, but these groups also have tremendous outside money in a re-election, and many don’t mind getting involved in a primary,” said U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, a Savannah Republican who is likely to run for Senate next year. “In fact many see their effectiveness as more important in a primary than a general election. So members are mindful of it.”
Kingston pointed out that the varying vote preferences of these groups mean no member has a monopoly on the “most conservative” label. Kingston – an 11-term veteran appropriator – is deemed less conservative than his potential Senate foes in most rankings.
The Club For Growth gave him an 85 percent, trailing 86 percent for U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell, 89 percent for Gingrey and a perfect 100 for Broun.
FreedomWorks gave Kingston a 63 percent last year, with Gingrey earning 82 percent, Price 88 and Broun 100.
Kingston said he also pays attention to the National Federation of Independent Business, which gave perfect scores to all Georgia Republicans last year; Ralph Reed’s Duluth-based Faith & Freedom Coalition, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He said an influential group’s opinion on a bill is not the final word but is taken into account.
“If they found something in the bill and they come out against it, it gives you pause,” Kingston said. “What is it I did not see in the bill? And let me go back and study this perspective.”
Conservative groups — along with their scorekeeping counterparts on the left, such as labor unions and environmental groups — cultivate this influence in part through money. The Club For Growth is a prime example.
In Texas last year the Club bundled $1 million in donations and spent another $5.5 million in independent advertising on behalf of Ted Cruz in his primary, and in Indiana the group bundled $330,000 and spent $1.45 million independently to boost Richard Mourdock and take down U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar.
Cruz won his general election easily, while Mourdock lost to Democrat Joe Donnelly in an upset.
The Club has not yet announced whether it will endorse a candidate or advertise in Georgia’s Senate race, and it’s unclear whether a “B” running against an “A+” would prompt a flood of funding.
Club For Growth spokesman Barney Keller said the group likes a “contrast” in races, and an endorsement is based on a variety of factors, from an in-person interview to “intangible qualities” such as outspokenness on conservative issues.
“The scorecard is just one metric that we use,” Keller said. “It’s a very helpful tool, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. Right now, we’re watching the (Georgia) race.”
Americans For Prosperity, meanwhile, uses its rankings to “educate activists on how those members have voted,” said AFP policy director James Valvo. It also gives good soldiers positive press in their home states, Valvo said.
AFP — a tea party-oriented group funded in part by the billionaire Koch brothers — spent more than $36 million on the 2012 campaign, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, mostly on advertisements attacking Democrats. And it is considering for the first time playing an active role in Republican primaries in 2014, AFP president Tim Phillips told The Daily Caller website last month.
Heritage Action also rates Broun tops among potential Senate candidates at 96 percent. Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler said the group spends to protect vulnerable Republicans and has no current plans to get involved in GOP primaries, but his group is still affiliated with a major Republican primary kingmaker.
Heritage Action is the advocacy wing of the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank. New Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint is a former U.S. senator from South Carolina who has used his Senate Conservatives Fund political action committee to influence Republican primaries, often clashing with so-called establishment Republicans to do so.
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