Lies, Damned Lies, and Legislative Scorecards
The Maryland Freedom Caucus is touting a new scorecard ranking. Don't be confused into thinking it's a good thing.
This morning, the Maryland Freedom Caucus sent an excitable press release touting their newest scorecard rankings from the Institute for Legislative Analysis:
Maryland Freedom Caucus members have once again proven they are living up to campaign promises. For the second year in a row, all seven members topped the Institute for Legislative Analysis scorecard measuring alignment with conservative ideals of the Republican Party Platform.
The ILA evaluates how faithfully legislators vote for the principles Republican voters actually support: limited government, lower taxes, constitutional rights, secure communities, and parental authority. Last year the seven members led the state. This year’s results confirm a rock-solid consistency.
Except that’s not exactly what the scorecard measures, according to a press release from the Institute for Legislative Analysis.
The Institute for Legislative Analysis released its 2026 vote record study of the Maryland General Assembly today, finding that many Republican state lawmakers have sharply declined in their alignment with President Donald Trump’s agenda and the National Republican Party Platform.
The study, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind on the Maryland General Assembly, examined more than 13,000 individual votes cast by lawmakers and measured each member’s adherence to the National Republican Party Platform on a 100-point scale.
The Institute for Legislative Analysis did not measure the votes of Maryland General Assembly lawmakers in terms of Republican principles. No, they based their ratings on nothing more than fealty to Donald Trump. Yes, they gave lip service to “adherence to the National Republican Party Platform”, but in an era where the Republicans have no platform beyond the whims of a statist octogenarian with dementia and delusions of grandeur, the only true metric is kissing Donald Trump’s ass.
What’s ridiculous about this “legislative scorecard” is the fact that it takes a one-size-fits-all approach to the “national platform” so much as it is, and looks at the 50,000-foot view of bills from a national perspective instead of from the state perspective. Here’s an example of a bill where many Republican legislators went “against the GOP position”.
These yahoos somehow think that Maryland financing capital debt for capital projects will help “defeat inflation”. I really want them to explain how $1.8 billion in state debt impacts efforts to “Rein in Wasteful Spending”, especially seeing as how wasteful spending has skyrocketed in the 2nd Trump Administration.
Here’s another one.
We have a multi-billion dollar structural deficit, and these Washington chuckleheads are worried about an extra $6 million for "Heritage Area” subsidies. Things that, incidentally, have nothing to do with “DEI Initiative Funding.” And how exactly does spending an extra $6 million in state funds relate to “wasteful federal spending.”
Here’s another one:
This bill passed 46-0 in the State Senate, by the way. I guess Trumpkins are so pro-life that they don’t want to try and work to oppose suicide, and trying to prevent suicide is……<checks notes> weaponization of government.
Also, apparently, the Trumpkins are so pro-life that they are opposed to requiring special enrollment in health insurance plans if you’re pregnant.
This entire charade reeks of a national political solution to local problems. It is the exact type of top-down approach that Republicans were opposed to before the emergence of a certain New York liberal and Hillary Clinton donor who hijacked the GOP.
The team that put this scorecard together includes a Marylander.
Bill Dotson was the Republican nominee for State Senate in District 28 against Arthur Ellis, losing 66-33. He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Charles County Orphans’ Court, but resigned in disgrace for using his power to advance his personal interests.
The fact of the matter is that the Institute for Legislative Analysis scorecard isn’t worth the digital paper it’s printed on. It is little more than an attempt to bully local legislators into doing the bidding of Donald Trump at the local level, regardless of the consequences for their state, their communities, and their neighbors. It is ironic that the release of this, at least for Maryland, comes at a time when Trump’s power is waning with Congress.
That the Maryland Freedom Caucus is the only group of legislators that received an “A” grade from the heavily Trumpkinized legislative scorecard tells us everything we need to know about them, and explains why in so many of their votes they are boisterously going down to defeat on the business end of a 131-7 ass-whooping. The Maryland Freedom Caucus remains what we thought they were: loud, boisterous, ineffective, attention seekers more interested in carrying water for Donald Trump than they are in working for the people of Maryland.