July 21, 2011 08:56 PM UTC

Colorado AFL-CIO Releases Legislative Scorecard

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado AFL-CIO today released its “2011 Working Families Scorecard,” the first time that the labor organization has released its legislative scorecard to the general public.

It should come as no surprise that Democrats generally rated better than Republicans on legislation tracked by the AFL-CIO (17 Senate Democrats and 20 House Democrats received 100% scores). At the low end, Republican Rep. Don Beezley picked up the worst score, at 27%; Rep. Wes McKinley and Rep. Sue Schafer hold the ignominious tie for the lowest score among Democrats with 79%.

There were a few interesting scores that raised our collective eyebrows:

Brophy and Lundberg are the leaders of the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party among Colorado legislators, and their scores weren’t all that bad for bills backed by labor interests — especially considering that their lifetime scores are 26% and 19%, respectively.

We wonder if McNulty and Stephens intentionally tried to stay below 50%, but these are numbers that could prove harmful to the re-election prospects of each should they face a primary challenge.

An electrician by trade, Soper is one of the few former union members in the legislature and has a 98% lifetime score — which makes his opposition on 3 pieces of tracked legislation in 2011 all the more curious.

Casso has always tried to trumpet himself as “labor’s best friend,” with a lifetime score of 95% and high-profile public battles with former Governor Bill Ritter on his resume. Casso’s working-class image took a hit over his Payday Lender support, and this 80% score–which is one point away from being the worst score for a Democrat–comes at a bad time for someone looking at a potential run for higher office if redistricting is kind to his Adams County roots. Casso has never struck anyone as being the brightest bulb in the lamp, but this is particularly awkward for him ahead of 2012.

You can view the full scorecard here, or read the press release after the jump.

Today the Colorado AFL-CIO shared the results of the 2011 Working Families Scorecard. While the organization has ranked legislators for years, this is the first time they have released it to the general public to educate them on where their state legislators stand on issues of importance to Colorado’s working families.

The Colorado AFL-CIO successfully defended the interests of working families with the help of strong support from Democratic legislators. 54 floor and committee votes on bills and amendments related to 35 pieces of legislation we tracked. 17 of 20 Senate Democrats and 20 of 32 House Democrats chose to support a working families agenda 100 percent of the time when they had an opportunity to record a vote on a bill that was tracked. Additionally, the AFL-CIO worked as part of strong, bi-partisan coalitions to achieve success on a number of issues. This increased voting scores of GOP legislators in 2011 and built stronger ties across party lines. Of the 35 pieces of legislation we advocated for or against, the final outcome of the legislation matched the Colorado AFL-CIO position 72% of the time.

“This year saw unprecedented attacks across the nation on the rights of workers,” said Mike Cerbo, executive director of the AFL-CIO. “Colorado was not immune to these attacks, but as a result of strong leadership in the Colorado State Senate every single one of these direct attacks was thwarted. Colorado common sense prevailed.”

Mike Cerbo specifically credited Senators Shaffer, Morse, Heath, Bacon, and Boyd for refusing to allow partisan attacks on working families to succeed in Colorado.

“The session was very dichotomous in that bills that brought people together passed and others that pulled people apart failed,” said Phil Hayes, political director of the Colorado AFL-CIO.  “We challenged legislators and the Governor to work with us collaboratively to find solutions to get people back to work and make sure those who are unemployed have the resources they need until they find a job. That was in part why we saw a wholesale increase in scores.”

Highlights from 2011 include HB 1115 (Public Entity Construction Retainage) which will help both contractors and trades professionals in a very tough economy.  Also, HB 1288 (Unemployment Insurance Solvency Reform) will stabilize our UI Trust Fund and provide insurance premium relief to employers without a reduction of benefits for those without work.

In January 2011, The Colorado AFL-CIO unveiled its pro-active legislative agenda called “Reinvest in Colorado.” “Reinvest in Colorado” also called for supporting budget policies that protect critical services for the public and respect the valuable public servants that provide them. While the budget could have been much worse, the economic and constitutional constraints impacting our state budget still required massive cuts to public schools and critical services. Public employees still face tremendous challenges in the form of wage freezes, increases in their pension contributions and higher healthcare costs.

The Colorado AFL-CIO is the largest advocacy organization for working families in Colorado. Our federation represents 181 local union affiliates and over 310,000 active, retired and family members of Colorado’s union households.