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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Ranking Maldonado – A Review of Scorecards | California Progress Report


Ranking Maldonado – A Review of Scorecards California Progress Report:

"Announcing his pick for Lieutenant Governor on the Jay Leno show last night, Governor Schwarzenegger said this about Senator Abel Maldonado “He’s a terrific, loyal man that has worked very hard in public service. But he’s also into bipartisanship and post partisanship, so he can cross the aisle. He makes decisions based on what’s best for the people rather than what’s best for the party.”"


A review of legislative scorecards prepared by organizations across the ideological spectrum shows that Senator Maldonado gravitates somewhat closer to the center than most of his Republican colleagues. These scorecards rank lawmakers on votes cast for or against the organization’s position on a range of bills in the organization’s issue areas. (In several cases 2009 scorecards are not yet available so we looked at 2008 scorecard).

The California Labor Federation gave Maldonado a failing grade of 29% on key labor votes cast in 2008. In contrast, the California Chamber of Commerce’s 2009 scorecard gave Maldonado an 85% pro-business voting record.

The Consumer Federation of California gave Senator Maldonado a 2009 score of 64% on consumer protection bills, and the Congress of California Seniors’ 2009 scorecard gave him a grade of 58% on senior citizen issues. Both were failing grades, but the highest achieved by a Republican lawmaker.