Malloy: Maybe Hoffman was right
In his Idaho Politics Weekly column, Chuck Malloy comments:
For whatever ratings are worth from “conservative” organizations – and they’re not worth a lot, except to provide a snapshot of legislative action -- I must give props to the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Wayne Hoffman.
There were some howls of protest from the Statehouse earlier this year when Hoffman issued his “Freedom Index” rating that gave 51 lawmakers (almost half the Legislature) failing grades on his conservative scale. Some legislators pointed out that in 2015, the American Conservative Union listed Idaho as one of the most conservative states in the country. Rep. Luke Malek of Coeur d’Alene, one of Hoffman’s favorite targets for attack, had a 91 percent rating by the ACU and was just a single percentage off from being Idaho’s most conservative House member.
The ACU’s recently released rankings for 2016 were not so flattering for the Gem State’s politicos – giving substance to Hoffman’s claim that the Legislature is not as conservative as people think. The ACU gave 42 legislators marks at 60 percent or below, which isn’t far off Hoffman’s scorecard. Overall, the House and Senate scored in the low 60s and Republicans were in the low 70s. More here.
