The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) issued its annual ratings of legislators this month, with four state senators and 13 state representatives receiving perfect scores. The scorecard analyzed 25 bills in the House and 30 in the Senate during the 2023 session that addressed priority issues for AFEC. Many legislators scored well since “[f]or 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.”
The 2023 legislature is considered more conservative than in recent years.
The four state senators who received perfect scores were Republicans Jake Hoffman (Queen Creek), Anthony Kern (Glendale), Janae Shamp (Surprise), and Justine Wadsack (Tucson). Both Shamp and Wadsack are new legislators this year. The 13 state representatives who received perfect scores were Neal Carter (Casa Grande), Joseph Chaplik (Scottsdale), Justin Heap (Mesa), Laurin Hendrix (Gilbert), Rachel Jones (Tucson), Alex Kolodin (Scottsdale), David Marshall (Snowflake), Cory McGarr (Tucson), Steve Montenegro (Glendale), Barbara Parker (Mesa), Jacqueline Parker (Maricopa), Michele Peña (Yuma), Austin Smith (Surprise), and Beverly Pingerelli (Peoria). Over half are new legislators: Jones, Heap, Kolodin, Marshall, McGarr, Parker, Peña, and Smith.
All those legislators except Pingerelli also have lifetime scores of 100 percent; Pingerelli dropped to 99 percent.
The lowest-scoring Republicans in the State Senate were Ken Bennett (Prescott) with 71 percent, Frank Carroll (Surprise) with 84 percent, and Sine Kerr (Buckeye) with 85 percent. The Republicans in the State Senate with the lowest lifetime ratings are T.J. Shope (Coolidge) at 66 percent and Bennett and David Gowan (Sierra Vista) at 71 percent.
The lowest scoring Republicans in the State House were David Cook (Globe) at 66 percent, followed by eight representatives tied at 72 percent. Cook also had the lowest lifetime rating at 62 percent, followed by David Livingston (Peoria) at 65 percent.
AFEC said three bills primarily tripped up Republicans. One was the AFEC-opposed SB 1102, sponsored by Carroll, which sent a tax measure to the ballot, extending the Prop. 400 sales tax for public transportation and other transportation projects. AFEC opposed SB 1562 since it was a refundable tax credit for a corporation, “increasing the refundability for a portion of the program and making the other portion of the existing nonrefundable R&D tax credit refundable.” Finally, AFEC objected to the House Appropriations Committee voting to increase and extend the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program as HB 2562 and SB 1327, sponsored by Gowan.
The highest-scoring Democrats in the state senate were Sally Ann Gonzales (Tucson) with 17 percent, Anna Hernandez (Phoenix) with 8 percent, and Flavio Bravo (Phoenix) with 7 percent. Juan Mendez (Tempe) has the highest lifetime score of State Senate Democrats, with 14 percent, followed by Gonzales at 13 percent. Five Democrats in the State Senate scored zeroes in the 2023 ratings: Christine Marsh (Phoenix), Rosanna Gabaldon (Sahuarita), Lela Alston (Phoenix), Theresa Hatathlie (Coal Mine Mesa), and Catherine Miranda (Phoenix), who also has a lifetime score of zero.
The highest-scoring Democrats in the State House were Judy Schweibert with 9 percent, Athena Salman with 8 percent, and Stephanie Stahl Hamilton with 7 percent. Salman had the highest lifetime score at 15 percent. Fifteen Democrats in the State House scored zero in the 2023 ratings, and 13 have lifetime scores of zero.
AFEC said nearly 15,000 activists sent over 35,000 emails to lawmakers regarding their concerns about bills. The full list of bills AFEC scored is here, and the methodology used to score them here.
Some legislators who received top ratings are frequently ranked near the top of other conservative scorecards. Last year, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Arizona (RLCAZ) ranked Hoffman, Carter, and Petersen the highest in their respective chambers. The year before, Hoffman was the only state legislator to score 100 percent in the American Conservative Union’s (ACU) ratings.
Similarly, some of the Republican legislators who scored the lowest are usually at the bottom of other similar rankings. Cook and Shope were at the bottom of the ACU’s ratings, and Shope was at the bottom of the RLCAZ’s ratings.
AFEC gave 23 legislators an “A” rating below.
- 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)
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Arizona Capitol” by Wars. CC BY-SA 3.0.
