The conservative rating ('CR' in the spreadsheet) I used is an average of the American Conservative Union scores for Oklahoma legislators and the Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index. Using two sources broadens the perspective and scoring system.
Positive CPI scores indicate that the member's conservative voting outperforms their district. Negative scores show that the member is more liberal than the district.
In this post, we'll look at the CPI for State House members.
In what might surprise some, the top performer is Democrat State Rep. Regina Goodwin. She represents HD73, in the heart of north Tulsa. Her district has the lowest Republican rating in the state at 10.0%. Her conservative rating is 53, giving her a CPI of +43.0. She is the only Democrat in the top 34 House scores.
The second highest CPI score is Rep. George Faught of HD14 at +38.1. Term-limited Rep. Sally Kern (HD84) is third with +36.1, and term-limited Rep. Paul Wesselhoft (HD54) is fourth with +34.4. Freshman Rep. Scooter Park (HD65) is fifth with a CPI of +33.3. Incoming House Speaker Charles McCall is sixth at +33.1.
The lowest Republicans are Rep. Casey Murdock (HD61) with -15.6, term-limited Rep. Doug Cox (HD5) with -5.5, Rep. Leslie Osborn (HD47) with -3.8, term-limited Speaker Jeff Hickman (HD58) with -3.0, and term-limited Rep. Marian Cooksey (HD39) with -2.7.
Six Republican and one Democrat have CPI scores above +30. 18 Republicans have a score between +20 and +30. The average Republican score is +14.8, and the average Democrat score is -4.4.
61 Republicans have positive CPI scores, while 9 Republicans have negative CPI scores. 12 Democrats rate in positive territory, while 19 are negative (including six below -20).
33 House members are leaving office due to term limits, not seeking reelection, or losing their primary election. The average CPI for those leaving office is +6.2 (+14.0 for Republicans and -6.4 for Democrats). For the members who are running for reelection or elected without opposition, the average CPI is +9.8 (+15.1 for Republicans and -3.2 for Democrats).
In my next post, we'll look at the Conservative Performance Index for the State Senate.
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