Two Democrats Earn Top Score From Conservative Group

By Nathan L. Gonzales

Two socially conservative groups unveiled their vote ratings this week, and a couple of Democrats made the list of House Members with perfect scores during the 110th Congress.

FRC Action and Focus on the Family Action released their Vote Scorecard, rating Members on 17 votes deemed critical to the groups’ causes. Votes on hate crimes, federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research and abortion, and religious liberty were included, among others.

In all, 107 House Members were given “True Blue” status by “voting for families 100 percent of the time.”

“Thanks goes out to this bipartisan bunch for standing up for families,” FRC Action President Tony Perkins wrote in an e-mail update on Monday. Six years ago, Perkins ran unsuccessfully for the Senate as a Republican in Louisiana.

Not surprisingly, the “bipartisan bunch” consisted of 101 House Republicans and just six Democrats.

North Carolina Reps. Heath Shuler (D) and Mike McIntyre (D) voted with FRC Action and Focus on the Family Action on all 17 votes during the 110th Congress.

Democratic Reps. Donna Edwards (Md.), André Carson (Ind.), Don Cazayoux (La.) and Travis Childers (Miss.) were also included as “True Blue.” But the four Members were elected in special elections this year and were only in Congress for one of the 17 votes.

Some other Democrats scored well but fell short of the perfect score. Mississippi Rep. Gene Taylor earned a 94 percent rating, Georgia Rep. Jim Marshall an 88 percent, and Reps. Collin Peterson (Minn.) and Lincoln Davis (Tenn.) both received 82 percent.

This story first appeared on RollCall.com on September 30, 2008. 2008 © Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.