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.
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