by Matthew Holloway | Aug 2, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Turning Point Action’s (TPA) recently updated scorecard grades the state of Arizona, as well as our members of Congress and State Legislators, on their alignment with or divergence from its policies and political positions. Federal-level scorecards were created for all fifty states, but state-level drilldowns were developed for six swing states: Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia.
The scorecard revealed a significant opportunity for improvement in the Arizona legislature, with many of the most prominent Republicans in leadership roles scoring below the 80th percentile. According to TPA, the conservative outreach organization, “has worked across the conservative movement to identify every scorecard and the legislation they encompass and provide an accumulation of scoring from across the Republican spectrum.”
Each state, policy category, and lawmaker (federal and state) is scored 0-100 and is classified from “Tyrant,” and “Becoming Tyrannical,” mainly for Democrats and some Republicans with a score of 49 or less, to “Turncoat” at 50, “Betraying America,” from 50-60, “Erratic,” from 60-70, “Becoming Erratic” from 70-80, “Losing Patriotism,” at 80-95, and for those scoring 95+: “Patriot.”
According to an explanation of lawmaker scoring from TPA, “Turning Point Action looks at each vote individually, identifies the category it belongs in and works amongst the grassroots to identify the conservative position. If the representative votes with Turning Point Action’s position for each bill or nomination, they receive full points. If the representative votes against TPA’s position, they receive nothing. Not voting, present, and abstaining from voting gives the representative only half credit, thereby diminishing their score for neglecting their responsibility.”
States are also scored in overall terms by “first finding the overall House score and overall Senate score by issue. Then the overall House score is added to the overall Senate score and divided by two to achieve the overall category state score.” States are accordingly ranked as being a “Tyrannical State” with a score between 0%-20%, “Becoming Tyrannical,” from 21%-40%, an “Erratic State” from 41%-60%, “Losing Freedom,” from 61%-80%, and a “Free State” scoring 81% or better.
As of this report, Arizona is ranked as “Losing Freedom” on federal matters with a score of 62.50 and as an “Erratic State” on state issues with a score of 41.69.
In the case of Arizona’s state legislature, the only “Patriots” recognized by TPA were Senator Jake Hoffman with a score of 99.40, and Representatives Joseph Chaplik with 98.05 and Alexander Kolodin with 96.10. The scores indicate a significant split between Arizona’s legislative GOP leadership and one of the largest, most impactful political organizations in the state and country.
Several of the most prominent leaders in the GOP were scored relatively low, such as House Speaker Steve Montenegro, who scored 77.27, labeled as “Becoming Erratic,” and Majority Leader Michael Carbone, who scored 71.43. Senate President Warren Petersen is listed as “Losing Patriotism,” with a score of 89.16 alongside Majority Leader John Kavanagh, who scored 83.13.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Ethan Faverino | Jul 22, 2025 | News
By Ethan Faverino |
The Arizona Republican Assembly (AZRA) has released its Final Legislative Scorecard for the 2025 Arizona State Legislative Session.
This scorecard evaluates Arizona State Senate and House of Representatives members based on their voting records and alignment with AZRA’s core principles of limited government, individual liberties, and fiscal responsibility.
As primary elections approach, this scorecard is a critical tool for voters to distinguish authentic conservatives from those who merely claim the label.
The AZRA Legislative Scorecard is the only one, not only in Arizona but in the nation, where a committee of twelve members from across the state invest thousands of hours analyzing over 1,800 bills annually, rating more than 250 bills.
AZRA then publishes these bill ratings before legislative votes, notifying every legislator in advance and inviting feedback to ensure fairness. To maintain integrity, AZRA contracts a national data firm that receives daily voting data from the Arizona Legislative Council, updating results without manipulation or bias.
The scorecard lists 30 State Senators and 60 State Representatives, providing numerical scores out of 100 based on weighted votes on key bills. Scores are presented alphabetically by last name for letter grades, in descending order, along with party affiliation and legislative district.
Among senators, Senate President Warren Petersen (R-LD14) earned the highest score of 98.5, followed by Senator Wendy Rogers (R-LD7) at 96.9, Senator David Farnsworth (R-LD10) at 95.9, and Senator Timothy Dunn (R-LD25) at 95.5.
The highest-ranking Democrats were Senator Brian Fernandez (D-LD23) at 40.5 and Rosanna Gabaldón (D-LD21), at 34.1. The lowest scoring Democrats were Lauren Kuby (D-LD8) at 25.4 and Priya Sundareshan (D-LD18) at 23.8.
Representative Selina Bliss (R-LD1) led the House with a score of 96.8, followed by a four-way tie at 96.1 among Majority Leader Michael Carbone (R-KD25), John Gillette (R-LD30), Quang Nguyen (R-LD1), and James Taylor (R-LD29).
Rep. Bliss recognized AZRA’s Scorecard saying, “It is an honor to be recognized, along with seatmate Quang Nguyen, by the Arizona Republican Assembly for our work at the Capitol!”
Out of the Democrat Representatives, Alma Hernandez (D-LD20) scored the highest with a 49.4 and Consuelo Hernandez (D-LD21) with a 48.8. The lowest ranked Democrats are Quantá Crews (D-LD26) with a score of 26.6 and Mariana Sandoval (D-LD23) with a 25.5.
The AZRA scorecard reveals a significant divide in voting patterns between Republican and Democratic legislators in the Arizona State Senate and House, with Republicans ranging from 78.7 to 98.5 and Democrats scoring from 23.8 to 49.4.
Correction: This story originally stated that there are 50 State Representatives. The story has been updated to reflect the correct number at 60 State Representatives.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by AZ Free News | Jul 14, 2021 | News
The Club’s 2021 legislative scorecard (View House of Representatives and Senate Scorecards) included a thorough review of over 25 key bills, legislative actions and votes taken by lawmakers this session with an emphasis on the Club’s supported or opposed bills. The methodology included other issues important to our grassroots activists such as addressing regulatory relief and ongoing government overreach from the covid-19 pandemic, banning critical race theory in our taxpayer-funded institutions and school choice.
Issues weighed heavily in the scorecard included bills relating to income tax policy and election integrity, both of which were the two main planks of the Club’s agenda for 2021.
In January, the Club began advocating for a major tax cut proposal. Our guidelines were simple, the tax cut must amass to at least $1Billion, it must deal with and offset completely the disastrous impacts of Prop 208, and it must not include any special interest tax carveouts.
Not all legislation was weighted equally but ranked by Club priority. Highly prioritized issues included votes on special interest tax carveout programs, as these are often “truth-test” issues that separate the stalwart conservatives and the lawmakers highly influenced by special interest lobbyists. Club President Scot Mussi expounded, “Our organization was founded to fight for the taxpayer of Arizona. The ability for ‘woke’ corporations to secure major tax carveouts, in some instances zeroing out all tax liability, is a serious threat to a broad-based, low-tax environment for every Arizona family and small business. Our lawmakers shouldn’t be picking winners and losers but representing all Arizona taxpayers.”
Ultimately, several bills became the focus of these efforts and were included in the methodology of the 2021 legislative scorecard. The tax policy bills weighed most significantly in the scorecard included:
- SB1783: (alternative small business tax) establishes an optional alternative small business tax in Arizona that allows business owners to separate wage income from business income when filing and paying their taxes. This bill helped clarify those successful small businesses in the state would not be subject to the Prop 208 surcharge and fulfilled the Club’s goal of offsetting the otherwise irreversible damage of Prop 208.
- SB1828/HB2900 (tax omnibus) & SB1827/HB2899 (Revenue; Budget Reconciliation) included a $1.7B tax cut for all taxpayers by ultimately streamlining Arizona’s income tax rates to 2.5% and an effective marginal rate of 4.5% at the top. These bills fulfilled the Club’s goal of cutting taxes by at least $1B and helped to offset the damage of Prop 208 by setting a cap on how much any Arizonan could pay in income taxes in the state at 4.5%.
- SB1124 (Contributions in aid of construction) This bill was amended to include two programs the Club has opposed for years – the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and Angel Investors Tax Credit. The combined $185 Million in tax carveouts for wealthy investors, developers and banks included in the two programs are obstacles to good tax reforms that benefit all and only get traction at the legislature because of special interest lobbyists.
Also included in the Club’s legislative priorities were several bills dealing with election integrity. Despite dozens of bills being introduced, five election integrity bills were included in the scorecard. Three of these bills were top Club issues the entire session:
- SB1485 (early voting list; eligibility) Ensures Arizona’s early voters list remains clean and current by implementing a process for removing names of individuals who perpetually do not vote by early mail-in ballot.
- SB1713 (mailing; early ballots; identification) Requires a voter who chooses to vote early by mail to provide their birthday as well as another form of identification such as driver’s license number or social security number.
- HB2569 (elections; private funding; prohibition) Prohibits outside interests from financing the administration of elections by providing grants to government agencies for the implementation of an election including voter registration.
Aside from weighing over 25 key legislative votes, the Club also included discretionary points for certain members which either added or subtracted to their overall score. This inclusion is important as it is often difficult to assess a member’s performance solely based upon their votes. Other criteria used for qualitative points were whether they sponsored particularly bad legislation even if it did not receive a full vote of the body, if they were an obstacle to key caucus or Club issues even if they ultimately voted the “right” way, or if they were responsible for killing key reforms and stalled their advancement to a floor vote.
Given the rigorous criteria in the Club’s 2021 scorecard, the top performing legislators distinguish themselves as faithful conservatives in the caucus. These members consistently fight for limited government, free market principles, low, smart and fair taxes, and individual liberties. The Club Top performers in the Legislature who have earned an A+ in 2021 included:
- Senator Warren Petersen (LD 12)
- Senator J.D. Mesnard (LD 17)
- Rep. Jacqueline Parker (LD 16)
- Rep. Jake Hoffman (LD 12)
- Rep. John Fillmore (LD 16)
- Rep. Joseph Chaplik (LD 23)
- Rep. Shawnna Bolick (LD 20)
- Rep. Travis Grantham (LD 12)
- Rep. Beverly Pingerelli (LD 21)
- Rep. Bret Roberts (LD 11)
- Rep. Gail Griffin (LD 14)
- Rep. Judy Burges (LD 1)
Methodology for Senate Scorecard
Methodology for House Scorecard
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