Dems rank high, GOP low in Consumer Federation scorecard
by Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
The Legislature’s sharp ideological division is reflected in a scorecard on 14 key issues in the last legislative session from the Consumer Federation of California.
While 11 of 25 Democratic senators and 19 of the Assembly’s 50 Democrats scored 100 percent in the organization’s rankings, 23 of 29 Assembly Republicans scored under 11 percent, 16 of them zero, and nine of 15 Republican senators were under 15 percent, four at zero. The scorecard ranks lawmakers from last session, including members who are no longer in elected office.
"Not all Democratic lawmakers received high marks," the federation’s spokesman, Zack Kaldveer, said. "An informal caucus of corporate-friendly Democrats often joined their Republican colleagues to kill consumer protection bills – particularly those targeted by corporate interests and their armies of lobbyists."
The Consumer Federation’s 14 issues include a number of bills that the state Chamber of Commerce labels as "job killers" and the business group’s rankings are a reverse mirror image, giving Republicans and a few Democrats high marks for killing business-opposed measures.