52 Lawmakers Earn “Radical Left” Ratings

Alexandria, VA—The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) has just released its ratings of the Second Annual Session of the 217^th meeting of the New Jersey State Legislature. These ratings, a portion of the comprehensive and nationwide ratings released by ACUF, are designed to reflect how elected officials view the role of government and illustrate how both chambers of the legislature and individual members prioritize a wide variety of issue areas that directly affect New Jerseyans.

ACUF reviewed each piece of legislation voted on in both the Senate and General Assembly to produce average scores for each chamber as well as individual scores for each sitting member.

New Jersey legislators took pen to paper on various issues during the Second Annual Session of the 217^th legislature. In one or both chambers, they voted to:

• raise the cost of energy by joining the northeastern cap and trade program;
• override the governor’s veto and increase funding for Planned Parenthood;
• create a new bureaucracy to increase mandates for solar energy use;
• prevent oversight of pension funds for police and fire unions;
• expand Medicaid to cover individuals earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level; and
• create a special, increased minimum wage for government-favored subcontractors.

“In 2017, New Jersey lawmakers appeared to go down a bad road by enabling corrupt union bosses to continue mismanaging workers’ pensions,” said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp. “They also increased taxpayer funds to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood and forced consumers to bear the cost of a politicized energy agenda. A handful of strong conservative legislators were vastly outnumbered, and the body as a whole failed to take action for the best interests of families, and instead rewarded special interests with sweetheart deals.”