Some conclusions about Washington State legislators

In Who’s progressive in the Washington State House? — based on combined data from five scorecards and in Who’s progressive in the Washington State Senate? — based on combined data from five scorecards, I presented a score for each Washington State legislator based on component scores assigned by conservation, labor, women’s rights, racial justice, and conservative advocacy groups.

Today I extended the scorecards to show more component data, and I added a pro-choice score to the senate scorecard.

Now I notice these significant facts:

1. No Republican House member is pro-choice. Some are neutral on the issue.
2. There is a large gap between the scores of all Republicans and all Democrats in the House.  In the House there is a huge difference between the parties: the Dems are a lot more progressive.
3. In the Senate Tim Sheldon and James Hargrove are distinct outliers: they are worse than some Republicans. (Sheldon joined with turncoat Rodney Tom to hand control of the Senate to Republicans.)
4. Ignoring Tim Sheldon and James Hargrove, there is a big difference between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.
5. No House Republican scored above 49 on conservation.
6. Only one House Democrat scored below 50 on conservation. Only two scored below 60.
7. Despite the gripes of some (extreme) progressives that the two major parties are the same, the evidence from the scorecards is that the Dems really are a lot more progressive.  Some of the Dems, though, are centrist.