slides: Common Cause Rankings for Each Member of the RI Senate

Sunday, August 28, 2016

GoLocalProv Politics Team

Is 2016 the year of ethics?

With the House Finance Committee Chairman's resignation and the controversies tied to Rep. John Carnevale, this may be one of the most controversial years and one poised to transform ethics laws.

In November, voters will be asked to approve Question 2 -- a ballot item, that if approved, will restore the Ethic's Commission's powers over the RI General Assembly.

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On Saturday, GoLocalProv.com published the voting record of each member of the House of Representatives as ranked by RI Common Cause. Today, we unveil the scores for each of the members of the Rhode Island State Senate.

Common Cause’s Methodology

According to Common Cause:

"Common Cause counted 16 Senate votes (weight equals 25) and 17 House votes (weight equals 32) from the Senate and House Journals in this two-year scorecard. Our lobbying, testimony, printed communications, or emails laid out Common Cause positions on most of the issues. In some cases, amendments proposed on the floor of the House and Senate focused the issue more clearly than final votes, or complimented votes on the entire bill. To better draw distinctions about what votes are most important to Common Cause, this scorecard utilizes a three-point scale for ranking votes:

1 Point – Routine pro-votes or anti-votes based on positions advocated by common cause;

2 Point – Votes that uphold or attack long-standing, clearly enunciated common cause principles; and

3 Point – Votes on legislation or resolutions initiated by common cause, or on issues of critical importance to government reform.

It’s important to note that Common Cause takes positions on issues based on concerns for process rather than issues of substantive public policy. The votes selected for this scorecard reflect that emphasis. A State Governing Board elected by the membership of Common Cause Rhode Island at its Annual Meeting each fall establishes our positions.

The votes are divided into issue areas, including Elections and Campaign Finance, Ethics and Lobbying Reform, Judicial Selection, Open Government and Rules and Separation of Powers. Within these issue areas the number of pro-votes is divided by the total possible in that area (e.g. 3 pro-Common Cause votes out of 4 results is a 75%). On some occasions lawmakers abstain, or recuse, on votes because of potential conflicts. In instances of recusal they are required by law to note the reason for the recusal in the House and Senate Journals.

Since the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s case in the Irons decision, however, no body exists to sanction legislators who do not recuse when they have a conflict. The formula used to calculate the final score is:

(Pro-votes) / ((Pro-votes + Anti-votes) + (Non-voting/2)) = (Final average)

Editor's Note: A previous version did no contain Senator Sheehan's score. The updated version includes his profile.

slides: Common Cause Rankings for Each Member of the RI Senate

Related Slideshow: 2016 Common Cause Legislative Rankings - Senators

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