Photo by West Virginia Citizen Action Group
By Dan Heyman/Public News Service WV
Just in time for the election: a free scorecard that runs down the voting record of every state senator and House delegate is available for voters in West Virginia.
The Heroes and Zeros 2015/2016 scorecard was created by the West Virginia Citizen Action Group and is freely available on their website, wvcag.org. Gary Zuckett, executive director at CAG, said the guide looks at every important vote on a wide variety of progressive issues – from prevailing wage and water quality to voter ID and the so-called religious freedom restoration act – and assigns representatives a score based on their voting record.
“People can really get a feel for what their individual legislator did,” Zuckett said. “Vote by vote, bill by bill, issue by issue, they can find out how they were represented during the past two years.”
Groups across the spectrum endorse candidates: unions, industries and organizations focused on individual issues such as guns or abortion. But Heroes and Zeros is one of the most comprehensive scorecards available – and it’s certainly one of the most progressive.
Zuckett said that based on the information collected for the guide, the Legislature seems to be moving in a very conservative direction.
“I’m afraid they would have to get a failing grade,” he said of representatives’ support of progressive issues. “In the House, just under half are at 20 percent or less. They only got one out of five right. And the Senate is actually worse.”
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