Conservative Index: 2018 Legislature

The upcoming issue of the Oklahoma Constitution presents the 40th annual Oklahoma Conservative Index, rating our state legislators. Members of each house of the Oklahoma Legislature were rated on ten key votes. A favorable vote on these issues represents a belief in fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, free enterprise, and constitutional government.

After taking suggestions from conservative leaders, the staff of the Oklahoma Constitution submitted bills to a vote of the membership of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC) to determine the ten key votes. The legislators were rated based on their votes on bills involving taxes, interference in free markets, protecting liberty, and the right to keep and bear arms.

2018 Oklahoma house Platform Index

 The Sooner Tea Party published the House version of the voting index in mere days after the end of the legislative session. By the end of the day on May 4^th legislators had submitted their lists and within hours we had the list boiled down to nineteen crucial votes and the next day we had the completed House index. Here's the Senate Scorecard

Here are the bills on this year's Oklahoma Platform Index.

HB 1010 xx Teacher tax, hikes on fuel, cigarettes and other tobacco products, and a GPT increase (Gross Production Tax) N is conservative, Y is liberal. This bill was one of the worst tax increases due to the extortion that was involved and it was the single largest tax increase in state history.

2018 Oklahoma House Platform Index

Sooner Tea Party just published their annual score of the Oklahoma Legislature. The name changed from The RINO Index to the Platform Index, this year.

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..and again the skies turned black with the sight of chickens coming home to roost.

This year's voting index is out in record time but it was a record breaking session and the opponents of the syphilitic bastards that voted to raise taxes need the ammunition in the primary races. By the end of the day on May 4^th legislators had submitted their lists and within hours we had the list boiled down to nineteen crucial votes and two of our full time staffers quickly cranked out the voting records overnight and earned some serious overtime pay.

Remember that STP doesn't give politician's credit for doing the right thing, that is their job to do the right thing. We believe that a list of bad votes makes far more sense than a list of good votes. As an example, the constitutional carry bill isn't on the index. Chances are good that Mary Fallin will veto the bill, and if she does it was arranged in advance to pull the heat off the House and Senate. Indexes that use the bill automatically give the incumbents five to ten points for something that they should be done and for something that might well turn out to be a charade.

Oklahoma Platform Index: 2017 Special Sessions

SoonerPolitics.org collaborated with A group of our partner journalists to review the voting of the members of the 56th Legislature. The House members are reviewed by their voting fidelity to conservative Republican principles, as detailed in the OKGOP Platform. This endeavor did not consult any members of the House GOP Platform Caucus members. Those voting predominantly in defiance of the OKGOP platform  are often  referred to as "Republican In Name Only" (or RINO, for short).  Some have already published works based off our collaborative research. For purposes of respecting intellectual property, SoonerPolitics.org will not encroach on the use of other journalists' brand of indices. Hence the SoonerPolitics.org index will be referred to at this publication as "The Platform Index".   As noted often in the past few years, the Republican leadership is becoming increasingly at odds with the OKGOP principles.  For that reason, a core group of the legislative Republican Caucus have also formed a 2nd caucus which they call 'The Platform Caucus'.   Sooner Tea Party & The Oklahoma Constitution typically score the legislature at the end of each regular session. Muskogee Politico publishes a Conservative Performance Index, which factors in the legislator's voting in comparison to his district's political demographics. The criteria is usually inclusive of many  types of legislation, including taxation, growth of govt. social policy, personal liberty, constitutional rights, and other concerns.

Only 5 Democrats in the House scored below 40, but nearly half of the Republicans scored no better than 25.

2017 Conservative Performance Index - by Muskogee Politico

– by Jamison Faught 

  Jamison & Muskogee Politico have developed a rating system to determine how Republican each state house and state senate district is. The formula is comprised of the three elements: Percentage in the most recent presidential election (federal-level), Performance in the most recent gubernatorial election (state-level), and Republican voter registration (local-level).

Jamison posted what he's calling the Conservative Performance Index, where we'll examine each legislator's conservative score (an average of two different conservative rating systems) and compare it to their district's Republican rating.

2017 American Conservative Union Oklahoma Legislators Index

Dear Fellow Conservative, 

  The American Conservative Union Foundation is proud to present our ratings of the 2017 meeting of the Oklahoma State Legislature. Like our Congressional Ratings, which date back 46 years, these ratings are meant to reflect how elected officials view the role of government in an individual’s life. We begin with our philosophy (conservatism is the political philosophy that sovereignty resides in the person) and then apply our understanding of government (its essential role is to defend life, liberty and property). Because our ratings are designed to educate the public about how consistently their elected officials adhere to conservatism, we carefully examine the entire docket of legislation introduced in each state every year. 

  We select the most meaningful bills and publish the results after the dust has settled. The ACU Foundation is the only organization to score over 8,000 elected officials each year, including lawmakers from all 50 states and Congress. The 2016 election dramatically impacted the political landscape of not only Washington but state legislative chambers all across the country. Republicans now have control of both legislative chambers in 32 states, more than double the number they controlled in 2010. With these victories comes an ability to implement policies that restore individual liberty and return us to a limited form of government run by and for “We the People.”