The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is proud to release our 2023 Legislative Scorecard. Over the course of the 2023 legislative session, the Club tracked and engaged on more than 60 bills, resulting in more than 35,000 emails sent to lawmakers from nearly 15,000 activists across the state. Our 2023 scorecard (View House Scorecard and Senate Scorecard) includes votes taken on 25 bills in the House and 30 bills in the Senate that cover priority issues for the Club and grassroots conservatives.
This year presented a unique challenge. For most of the legislative session, the caucuses in the House and Senate were unified, and there was less bad policy that made it onto the floor for a vote in either chamber. That’s a good thing, but it does make it difficult to distinguish the views of members when there are fewer contentious votes. There were, however, a few key difference-making votes.
For example, the Club has long opposed refundable tax credits for corporations, and similar to previous sessions, this year the Senate voted on SB1562, increasing the refundability for a portion of the program and making the other portion of the existing nonrefundable R&D tax credit refundable. You can find out more about why we oppose this idea here. Additionally, the House Appropriations Committee voted to increase and extend the Club opposed Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, which you can learn more about here. Most impactful, however, was a Prop 400 plan opposed by the Club and supported by MAG that was passed the last day of session as SB1102. These bills had the largest influence on lowering scores in both chambers.
We also scored dozens of bills supported by the Club. This includes bills to strengthen the integrity of our elections, cut taxes, and protect children from sexually explicit materials, and referrals to the 2024 ballot that will limit the power granted to the Governor during a state of emergency (HCR2039), protect our primary elections (HCR2033), and protect our ballot against initiatives bankrolled by out of state special interests to put liberal policies on the ballot (SCR1015).
A full list of bills scored in this year’s scorecard can be found here, and the full methodology, including the weighting of each bill, for the House can be found here and for the Senate can be found here.
Given the rigorous criteria in the Club’s 2023 and past years’ scorecards, the top performing legislators distinguished themselves as faithful conservatives in the caucus. These members consistently fight for limited government, free market principles, low, smart, and fair taxes, and individual liberties. The Club Top performers in the Legislature who have earned a lifetime ‘A’ in 2023 included:
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- Representative Neal Carter (LD15)
- Representative Joseph Chaplik (LD3)
- Representative Justin Heap (LD10)
- Representative Laurin Hendrix (LD14)
- Representative Rachel Jones (LD17)
- Representative Alex Kolodin (LD3)
- Representative David Marshall (LD7)
- Representative Cory McGarr (LD17)
- Representative Steve Montenegro (LD29)
- Representative Barbara Parker (LD10)
- Representative Jacqueline Parker (LD15)
- Representative Michelle Peña (LD23)
- Representative Austin Smith (LD29)
- Representative Beverly Pingerelli (LD28)
- Representative Travis Grantham (LD14)
- Representative Gail Griffin (LD19)
- Senator Jake Hoffman (LD15)
- Senator Anthony Kern (LD27)
- Senator Janae Shamp (LD29)
- Senator Justine Wadsack (LD17)
- Senator Warren Petersen (LD14)
- Senator JD Mesnard (LD13)
- Senator Wendy Rogers (LD7)
You can view the 2023 Legislative Scorecard for the House here.
You can view the 2023 Legislative Scorecard for the Senate here.
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