#ncga: ACU says our GOP guys and gals more conservative than all our neighbors (except Tennessee)
We’ve heard about the upper chamber on Jones Street. Let’s throw the House into the mix. The ACU’s overall average for the state House was 62 percent. Republicans rated, on average, 86 percent while Democrats averaged 23 percent.
According to the ACU, Rep. Charles Jeter (R-Mecklenburg) was the most liberal House Republican for 2015 with a score of 60 percent. William Brisson (D-Bladen) was the most conservative Democrat with a rating of 70 percent.
Both chambers’s GOP caucuses averaged 86 percent with the ACU. That puts them ahead of their GOP colleagues in the Virginia, South Carolina, and Kentucky legislatures. But Republicans in the Tennessee legislature outflank NCGOPers on the right, scoring 91 percent in the Senate and 93 percent in their House.
A score of 100 percent means the ACU finds you perfectly conservative. A score of zero puts you over in Karl Marx – Bernie Sanders territory. The ACU found 32 House 
members — all Republicans — scoring between 90 and 100 percent. Reps. Avila, Brody and Jordan were the only House Republicans to receive perfect scores of 100 percent for 2015.
What about some of the more notable House members? House Rules chairman David Lewis scored an 85. Jason “sharp dressed” Saine, chairman of the Finance Committee, scored 82 percent. (Both of those, notably, are below the overall House Republican average score.) Moore County’s Jamie Boles scored 92 percent. Majority leader Mike Hager scored 92 percent, as did Chris Millis and Larry Pittman. Craven County’s Mike Speciale scored 85 percent. George Cleveland came in at 92 percent for 2015. Davidson County’s Sam Watford finished up 2015 with a 92 percent rating.
Paul Tine, the alleged conservative Democrat who switched to independent and caucused with the GOP, finished up 2015 with a score of 45 percent. He is retiring from the House. Caldwell County’s George Robinson, facing a tough primary fight, finished 2015 with a score of 69 percent.
Appropriations Committee chairman Nelson Dollar finished the year with a rating of 85 percent.
Here are the votes the ACU used to reach their conclusions:
1. H 157 Hydraulic Fracking. This bill removes a mandate requiring the creation of
air pollution rules for hydraulic fracking and instead allows the state Environmental
Management Commission to issue such rules only if deemed necessary. ACU
supports reducing government regulation and supported this bill. The House passed
the bill on March 11, 2015 by a vote of 76-40.
2. H 138 Education Mandates. This bill would prevent high school students from
graduating if they do not have an arts education credit. ACU opposes mandates such
as art education that go beyond basic educational requirements and opposed this bill.
The House passed the bill on March 18, 2015 by a vote of 96-21.
3. S 372 Renewable Energy Subsidies. This bill extends the Renewable Energy Tax
Credit for one year. ACU opposes market distorting tax credits and would prefer
lower rates for all energy companies, and opposed this bill. The House passed the bill
on April 21, 2015 by a vote of 87-28.
4. H 318 E-Verify Requirements. This bill would increase the number of employers
required to participate in the E-Verify program to ascertain immigration status
and would repeal the E-Verify exemption for temporary employees. ACU supports
strengthening the E-Verify program to be fair to those legal immigrants who apply for
employment and supported this bill. The House passed the bill on April 23, 2015 by
a vote of 80-39.
5. H 465 Abortion Restrictions. This bill increases the waiting period before an
abortion can be performed from 24 to 72 hours and would ban doctors not licensed
as obstetricians or gynecologists from performing abortions. ACU views abortion as a
human tragedy and supports efforts to restrict the practice and educate patients, and
supported this bill. The House passed the bill on April 23, 2015 by a vote of 74-45.
6. H 760 Renewable Energy Mandates. This bill would freeze renewable energy
mandates at the current rate of 6 percent of total electricity production, a mandate
that is scheduled to increase to 12.5 percent. ACU opposes all energy mandates that
increase electricity costs and supported this bill. The House passed the bill on May 6,
2015 by a vote of 77-32.
7. H 405 Property Rights. Allows for recovery of damages in civil actions from those
who capture data from a company without authorization through electronic or other
means. ACU supports strong property rights and supported this bill. The House
overrode the Governor’s veto of the bill on June 3, 2015 by a vote of 79-36.
8. S 25 Zoning Regulations. This bill would, with some exceptions, prohibit a county
from adopting zoning and aesthetic regulations that involve building designs for one
and two family dwellings. ACU supports strengthening private property rights and
supported this bill. The House passed the bill on June 9, 2015 by a vote of 98-17.
9. S 2 Religious Freedom. This bill would allow government officials to cite “sincerely
held” religious beliefs as a reason not to participate in same-sex marriages in the
state. Magistrates and registrars of deeds who opt-out in writing would then be
exempt from performing all marriages for six months. The Administrative Office of
the Courts shall ensure that a magistrate in that jurisdiction is available to perform
the marriages and if not, designate someone to perform them. ACU supports these
religious freedom protections and supported this bill. The House voted to override
the Governor’s veto of the bill on June 11, 2015 by a vote of 69-41.
10. H 562 Concealed Carry. This bill would reduce restrictions on who can carry a
concealed weapon and where those weapons can be carried, as well as other provisions
that streamline firearm regulations. ACU supports protecting our founder’s belief in
the Second Amendment and supported this bill. The House passed the bill on June
17, 2015 by a vote of 78-37.
11. H 640 Sunday Hunting. This bill allows North Carolina to join 39 other states in
ending a centuries old ban on Sunday hunting on privately owned property. ACU
supports this reform that strengthens private property rights and supported this bill.
The House passed the bill on June 18, 2015 by a vote of 88-26.
12. H 169 Vehicle Emissions Inspections. This bill eliminates the need for vehicle
emissions inspections in 28 rural counties. ACU supports reducing unnecessary
regulations that both reduces government spending and saves the taxpayer money and
supported this bill. The House passed the bill on July 21, 2015 by a vote of 72-35.
13. S 374 Fishing Licenses. This bill changes the mandatory requirement for a logbook
by “for hire” coastal recreational fishing businesses to a voluntary program and
requires the creation of a stakeholder advisory for input on regulations. ACU supports
streamlining government regulations and supported this bill. The House passed the bill on
July 28, 2015 by a vote of 82-24.
Use Civitas for NC legislative ratings. ACU has no presence in the state and does ratings by remote control from Washington, DC. Civitas has a much better handle on what is really happening in Raleigh.
Under David Keene, and even more so Al Cardenas, ACU veered far toward the establishment. Cardenas is a huge cheerleader for amnesty for illegal aliens. ACU also got hooked up with the Log Cabin Republicans. Their ratings for Congress are no longer credible, even if they are there in DC to know what is going on. Keene and Cardenas have cooked their Congressional ratings to help their establishment buddies, even Mitch McConnell. Here for example is Erick Erickson, then editor of RedState, commenting on ACU’s rigged rating for McConnell just as McConnell was facing a conservative primary challenger:
http://www.redstate.com/2013/02/22/the-american-conservative-unions-embarrassing-scorecard/
While I have no knowledge about whether they deliberately cooked the books on anyone or any group in the legislature, their track record on ratings over the past decade or two makes anything coming from them highly suspect.
Stick with Civitas for competent and honest legislative ratings of the General Assembly.
GU Wonder, I like your points, but IMO you are missing the point. I don’t know much about aCU but agree many of these ‘self described’ conservative group are CINO (in name only). That begin said, I agree we are a conservative states..BUT does reach to non-conservatives. This is a reversal of what we saw before McCrory was elected.. Keep in touch ajbruno14@gmail.com
One of the issues of groups with no presence in the state doing these rating is that total lack of knowledge of local nuances. Take the fisheries bill they use in the rating. In NC, there is a huge battle between the commercial fishermen, a vibrant free enterprise community, and the environmentalists of the CCA who purport to represent sport fishermen. Thus using any CCA sponsored bill, like that one, as a ”conservative vote” will always be problematical, but that completely went over the heads of this out of state group.
Also some of the bills they used were unanimous votes, and those are not good indicators of separating the wheat from the chaff.
Prior to David Keene, ACU was a solid movement-oriented conservative group. He is the one who started bastardizing it, and Al Cardenas, a bigtime amnesty cheerleader, finished that job.
ACU once had a state chapter, with a local board of directors, which did a legislative rating. That was before Civitas got in the rating business, and that old ACU state affililiate’s rating was a solid piece of work. I think it was Keene who got rid of the state affiliates.
The only reason I see that they only gave me a 92 is because I voted against the Sunday hunting. I did not consider that a conservative move, but a liberal one, nor did I see it as a property rights issue. As a conservative, Biblical Pastor of a small country church, I just could not vote for that one.
And that was a bad choice for a key vote since it pitted one strand of conservatism against another, and liberalism did not even come into play.
I guess that depends on what you mean by conservative. For me, disrespect for the Sabbath is not conservative. I’ve seen the pictures of bullet holes in walls inside country churches, which us a problematic thing in itself, and could be even worse on Sunday when people are there. I also heard from farmers who didn’t want people to bother then about gun hunting on their land on Sunday. I just couldn’t see any justification for it.