Sorry BUDdy, You Got It All Wrong

While perusing Blognetnews of Md. web page I noticed a post from the ole No BS Zone on Andy Harris being the highest rated Senator from Md. by Progressive Maryland in 2007. As the name infers it deals with progressive issues and it typically rates Democrats higher than Republicans on a scoring system.

"The two highest-priority votes, indicated at the top of the scorecard, are double-weighted, while the other six votes are single-weighted. A vote supporting the progressive position a plus (+) vote, receives full credit, a vote against receives zero points for that vote, and an abstaining voter receives half. Excused absences and recused votes do not factor into the voting score. The leadership score accounts for 20 points of the lawmaker's final score, and the votes account for 80%" - Direct from Progressive Maryland Website on scoring.

Presumably all pluses are bad for Republican Office holders and the more pluses one has the higher/better the score you receive (Democrats receive higher scores) in the eyes of Progressive Md. Of course because of this rating, it is stated/inferred that Andy is automatically not a true conservative, gave an unwarranted attacked EJ Pipkin for not being Conservative enough, and has been lying to voters. This is simply not true and it is a straw man attack on Andy.

Andy in 2007 received three (+)'s and 4 (-)'s, one no vote taken (N/A), and a 9/20 leadership score. Here is the SCORE CARD! Please note that the Senators and Delegates voting are different because some are a House or a Senate vote only, not that they both had a chance to vote on the same bill because of the bill failing in one of the branches.

2 of the three (+)'s were on School Construction and Paper Trail for Cast Ballots. Both bills were unanimously passed by both Houses and by both Parties with one exempted vote. The complete list can be found HERE! No doubt here that those votes were in the best interest of Maryland and both Parties agreed! How could a plus possibly be bad in this instance?

The other plus came from Public Funding of Elections, which again is rated highest by the scoring system as being one of the top issues of the score card, 2nd position in this case. This was a Senate only vote. Now this is where it gets interesting.

The numbers are 19 Democrats received (+)'s and 14 received (-)'s. Including in those minuses included Senators Mike Miller, Nathaniel McFadden, and Edward Kassemeyer. The President of the Senate, The President Pro Tem, and the Majority Leader respectively. Shouldn't these be the individuals getting the pluses from this group, to be more progressive? Complete List!

On the Republican side three received (+)'s and 11 received (-)'s. Besides Andy the other two (+)'s were the Minority Leader David Brinkley and Minority Whip Allen Kittleman.

The total 22 (+)'s and 25 (-)'s. That bill was a close vote, especially on the Democratic side, nearly a split vote. Clearly there are splits in both Parties, especially in the central leadership. This Senate only vote does not provide any conclusive firm evidence because there is no clear line between whether a plus means you are Liberal or not or whether a negative means you are Republican or not. It is not a clear cut Republican or Democrat issue.

From two unanimous votes from BOTH PARTIES and one vote where either side does not know where it stands (granted on a rocky political slope and remember that the Democratic Leaders in the Senate (3 of 4) got negative marks) cannot constitute whether or not Andy Harris is too Liberal or not a Conservative. It is not possible with these premises; it's too far fetched. Again the issues that are used are not clear cut Republican or Democratic stances such as taxes or labor which can easily distinguish party lines.

Of course you can post the results from without any research or links to show the whole story and not give a proper narrative. I wonder why? Andy Harris has a solid record since 1998 in the Maryland Senate as an outstanding Conservative and leader for Maryland. The only way to discredit that record is try to paint a false picture. Data does not lie.

A single vote on a single bill should not alienate any voter to sway completely away from their representative unless that official creates a pattern of voting that is not consistent with how they want to be represented. Andy has not done this unlike what is inferred in that other post and again clearly this rating from Progressive Maryland does not constitute such a pattern. It is an imperfect system which does not work every time in every instance to clearly make a distinction; non partisan issues and ambiguous issues cloud such conclusions.

By the way, here is Senator Andy Harris's 2008 Scorecard! Your not going to be able to say much about this one or make the same false claim.