EVERYBODY gets a 100 ! (Wait. What’s Renee still doing here?)
Over at Civitas, they’re handing out perfect conservatism scores to Jones Street legislators like Halloween candy. (The place has been anything BUT conservative this session. *Corrupt, maybe.*) Uncle Art and Lil’ John must really be worried about hurting some feelings over on Jones Street — especially some that NEED hurting.
By my count, Civitas has so far blessed 22 of the 120 House members this session as “perfectly conservative.” John Blust and Mark Brody are at the top of the list. (Not much of an argument with that.) But they’ve also granted Jason Saine and Kelly Hastings and Julia Howard and Allen McNeill (who has spent most of his career floating around in F-country and brown-nosing the speaker) perfect scores. *Really? Seriously?*
Well, what votes got used to compile the ratings? Here we go. There were SIX of them. Count ’em. SIX: (1)
NC Cancer Treatment Fairness, (2) Local Govt / Regulatory Fees, (3) Strengthen Savings Reserve, (4) Restore Partisan Elections for District, Superior Court, (5) Eminent Domain, and (6) Right to Work constitutional amendment.
(*Interesting. No mention of the HB2 repeal vote.*)
Let’s look at the Senate. Civitas pretty much calls THE WHOLE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS there “perfectly conservative.” Thirty-one out of thirty-five GOPers get perfect scores. Deana Ballard and Chad Barefoot topped the list. (Even Phil Berger got a 100.)
Civitas also used SIX votes here to rate the legislators: (1) Restore partisan elections to judicial races, (2) constitutional amendment to cap state income tax rate, (3) Limit Payroll Deduction / Wage withholding, (4) Strengthen Savings Reserve, (5) Billion Dollar Middle Class Tax Cut, and (6) Convention of the States.
(*No mention of the HB2 repeal vote on this side of building, either.*) 
Up DC way, the ratings we have depended on are not doing much better. Conservative Review can’t bring themselves to accurately rate newcomer Ted Budd. They have him with an F-rating and a ZERO score, even though he’s been there four months taking all kinds of votes.
Heritage Action still lists Renee Ellmers as a member of our delegation, and does not even recognize Budd’s ascendance to Capitol Hill.
Civitas has just destroyed its credibility by using trivial issues and ignoring the elephant in the room that separates the liberals from the conservatives, HB2 repeal. I cannot imagine that they put out this farce willingly and it had to have been ordered from on high.
This reminds me of ACU doing the establishment’s bidding to help Mitch McConnell by monkeying around with their rating to give him a 100.
This travesty of a rating is NOT about legislators feelings. It is about political cover. The establishment realizes that real conservatives are angry with legislators who sold us out, so they are manufacturing a phony rating for them to use to claim to be conservative when they get primary challenges.
It is much like ACU;s manipulation of its rating the year Mitch McConnell had a serious primary challenge to give him a 100 while they gave the genuine conservatives in the Senate like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul lower scores. ACU ratings used to be the gold standard but have had no credibility since they did that.
Similarly when Civitas gives conservative standout Beverly Boswell a lower score that lots of establishment scumbags, the Civitas rating no longer has an ounce of credibitility. Jack Hawke must be turning over in his grave. I guess Francis DeLuca needs a job and that is why he is prostituting his organization to liberal Fifth Columnist John Hood.
HB2 is one of only three issues for which Civitas printed the roll call vote in its last newsletter, beside an article headlined “HB2 repeal leaves disappointment in its wake in NC”
It is beyond bizarre, therefore, that it is not part of their legislative rating.
Rating on the partisan election of judges is also strange, as it is a partisan vote that separates Democrats from Republicans, not necessarily conservatives from liberals. Using partisan rather than ideological votes pumps up the scores of RINOs. It is not a trivial issue to Republicans, and I personally strongly favor it, but it is not a liberal / conservative issue like the repeal of HB 2 very clearly is.