(The Center Square) – Ratings for Missouri legislators declined in a system developed by a conservative nonprofit group to examine voting patterns related to free-market economic policy.
The Club for Growth Foundation released its Missouri State Legislative Scorecard this week with a goal of educating the public about voting records. It analyzed 19 items voted on by the Missouri representatives and 13 by senators.
Legislators were given a score on a scale from 0 to 100, with the highest indicating support for “pro-growth policies,” according to the organization.
The average score for Senate Republicans in 2023 was 40%, down from 51% in 2022. House Republicans had an average of 44%, down from 48% in 2022. The average score for Senate Democrats was 5%, down from 16% in 2022, and House Democrats had an average of 2%, down from 17% in 2021.
“Unfortunately, the decrease is scores in Missouri is not surprising,” David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, a 501(c)(4) organization, wrote in an email to The Center Square.
“For the past few years, Missouri has seen numerous instances of GOP infighting within the Missouri Senate due to the divide between the conservative members and ‘moderate’ members,” he said.
Each legislator was evaluated on votes for four of the 14 appropriations bills comprising Missouri’s annual budget. The organization opposed House Bill 2 for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, House Bill 3 for the Department of Higher Education, House Bill 7 for the Departments of Economic Development, Commerce and Insurance and Labor and Industrial Relations, and House Bill 11 for the Department of Social Services.
“All of these bills have a direct impact on Missouri’s potential for economic growth and while the Foundation does not support or oppose any legislator for public office, the scorecard offers the public with insights on how each legislator views free market economic policies,” McIntosh said.
The House sent six bills to the Senate during the first six weeks of the 2024 legislative session. House Bill 1488 is the only economic bill as it provides tax credits for child care.
“Voters in Missouri know the issues that they value most and the information provided in the Foundation’s scorecard identifies which legislators must be held accountable,” McIntosh said. “It is not acceptable for so-called conservatives to side with liberals on such important legislation.”
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said Republicans’ election success the last several years will keep them focused on the same priorities.
“This is not going to change down here until they start to lose elections over the issues that they believe in,” Rizzo told reporters last week. “And it’s not a personal or political attack. That’s how politics usually works in government. … So until people in the state of Missouri decide that they have no appetite for the extremism in the Republican Party, they’ll continue. For them, there would be no reason to change.”
