And Again, in the Second Time in as Many Weeks, the Skies Turned Black with the Sight of Chickens Coming Home to Roost
Last week we published the House version of the voting index in mere days after the end of the legislative session. By the end of the day on May 4th legislators had submitted their lists and within hours we had the list boiled down to nineteen crucial votes and the next day we had the completed House index.
Remember that STP doesn't give politician's credit for doing the right thing, that is their job to do the right thing. We believe that a list of bad votes makes far more sense than a list of good votes. As an example, the constitutional carry bill isn't on the index because not only was the bill the right thing to do, it was also a charade that we knew would be vetoed so why give legislators credit for passing a bill they knew would be vetoed without making sure they kept the session open long enough to override the veto?
The scores are going to be lower in heavily Democratic areas of the state but then again we see plenty of Democrats near the top of the scores, a sad indictment of the integrity of the poor scoring Republicans.
In the end the Index is the standard of the Republican Party and will not be compromised. As long as some legislators do well there is no excuse for the majority to do well.
Each vote is worth a bit over 5 points and a missed vote (blue colored text E) is worth 2.5 points. Allowing credit for missed votes is a compromise for those that miss votes for family emergencies but it allows those with many missed votes to profit so if you see a legislator with a lot of missed votes he needs chastised.
We are making one big change this year. The name will change from the Oklahoma RINO Index to the Oklahoma Platform Index to better represent the connection to the GOP Party Platform which in itself is supported by a lot of the Democrat voters in Oklahoma.
