American Conservative Union ratings released

Shelbyville, IL – State Representative Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) was one of only five legislators in the House to receive a 90-100 percent conservative voting rating from the American Conservative Union, according to their annual report on state lawmakers.

“I appreciate groups like the American Conservative Union paying attention to how legislators are voting,” Halbrook said. “When people run for office and advocate certain positions – they need to be held accountable for how they vote. I campaign as a conservative legislator and I vote as a conservative. This report from the ACU confirms the consistency of my voting record.”

Halbrook scored a 93 percent conservative voting record in 2019 and he has a lifetime conservative voting record score of 96 percent. While Halbrook has a consistent conservative voting record, the report also chronicles how the Legislature has become increasingly more left leaning. During the 35 years that House Speaker Michael Madigan has presided over the House, the chamber has trended more liberal. In 2012 when ACUF first began analyzing the voting records of the General Assembly, House Democrats earned an average conservative score of 35%. However, as Speaker Madigan began turning in scores of 16%, 6% and 5% over the next few sessions, House Democrats followed suit and earned average scores of 19%, 14% and 11%.

“While Speaker Madigan’s near-five-decade reign appears to be coming to a disgraceful end, the Illinois Democrats he helped convert into socialists have so far survived his criminal scandal,” said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp. “Throughout his 47 years in power, Illinois has earned the lowest credit rating in the country, weathered the most severe pension crisis in U.S. history and suffered the worst population decline in the last 10 years. Is there a more damning indictment of liberalism than Madigan’s tenure in government?”

On average, lawmakers of the House of Representatives voted more liberally than their counterparts in the Senate. House Democrats (17.92% average) proved more liberal than Senate Democrats (14.09%). A greater share of senators (10%) earned awards for conservative voting records than representatives (7%). The Illinois General Assembly matched its overall average score compared to the previous session (35.6%).

ACUF’s Ratings of Congress and Ratings of the States are initiatives of ACUF’s Center for Legislative Accountability (CLA). These ratings are designed to reflect how over 8,000 elected officials across the nation view the role of government while illustrating the differences between chambers of the legislature and revealing lawmakers’ positions on a wide variety of issues that directly affect citizens.

ACU Foundation reviewed each piece of legislation voted on in both chambers of the legislature to produce average scores of each chamber as well as individual scores for each sitting member.

The full ratings can be found at http://acuratings.conservative.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2019/09/CLA_Illinois_2019_web.pdf.