FHA Action 2015 Scorecard Ignores Bread-and-Butter Issues That Strengthen All Families

The Family Heritage Alliance’s political action committee has posted its scorecard for members of the 2015 Legislature. FHA Action rated our legislators on their votes on 19 bills and resolutions out of 453 items considered last Session (everything except commemorations). Based on this 4.2% sliver of the Legislature’s work, FHA Action finds six Republican Senators and six Republican Representatives who are 100% allies in their culture war. No one comes out a perfect enemy of family or heritage or whatever, but three House Democrats score 20% or lower.

The Republican average on FHA Action’s 2015 scorecard is 78.5%. The Democratic average is 40.5%

My score: 26%! Here are my positions compared to FHA Action’s, in the order FHA Action lists the bills and resolutions:

I could have boosted my score to 32% by opposing SB 57, but the voters approved craps, roulette, and keno for Deadwood in a 2014 ballot measure, and I’m hard-pressed to undo the will of the people with a vote of the Legislature.

I could have lowered my score to 21% if I hadn’t aligned with FHA Action in opposing Common Core.

Does my 26% mean I’m an enemy of the family? Of course not. We all have families; none of us want to see families collapse. We just disagree on the impact of various pieces of legislation on families. FHA Action’s 4.2% sliver of the Legislative hopper maddeningly ignores the bread-and butter issues that have a greater impact on all South Dakota families’ stability and happiness than any of the culture-war issues that dominate the scorecard. The scorecard says nothing about the general appropriations bill, which continued the GOP’s ongoing neglect of K-12 education. Tell me, FHA Action, how well will families make out if our shamefully low teacher salaries leave your kids without math teachers? (Oh, heck, I forgot: FHA Action would love to see everyone do home school… even though they have no overarching economic plan that would make it possible for South Dakota’s two-income families to give up half their income and stay home to give their kids that wholesome education.)

On the only issue on the scorecard directly related to families’ economic well-being, the youth minimum wage, FHA Action makes the wrong call. Cutting wages for young workers means less money to help families pay for college and groceries and undermines the basic labor rights that protect all working families.

Scoring low on the FHA Action 2015 scorecard doesn’t mean a legislator doesn’t support families. It’s far more likely that a low-scoring legislator was too busy focusing on practical economic issues that matter to all South Dakota families to play FHA Action’s culture war.