Club For Growth grades our folks in DC for 2013 | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton affords us a review of North Carolina's Congressional Delegation's Conservative values in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    The Club For Growth  -  a DC-based PAC that emphasizes support for lower taxes and free market measures  -  loves to hold the feet of politicians in both parties to the fire. A lot of groups issue ratings. National Journal, for instance, evaluates your conservatism based on how often you vote with the GOP leadership. Given the rather conciliatory nature of the current House GOP leadership, voting with them is quite often mutually exclusive with being conservative.

    The Club has issued their 2013 ratings of all 435 voting members of the House and 100 members of the Senate. The ratings focus on how well, or how poorly, you opposed tax increases and increased regulation. 100 percent is perfectly conservative, while 1 percent is perfectly liberal.

    In the House, THREE Arizona Republicans and ONE Californian had perfect conservative ratings. South Carolina Republicans Jeff Duncan and Trey Gowdy, and Mick Mulvaney tied for 8th place in the chamber with ratings of 97 percent. Mark Sanford is at 16th place. Joe "You Lie" Wilson comes in at 76th place, while Tom Rice comes in at 89th place.

    George Holding, at 40th place with 86 percent, is ranked as the most-conservative member of the North Carolina House delegation. Mark Meadows comes in at 44th place. Virginia Foxx comes in at 45th place. Robert Pittenger comes in at 66th place. Richard Hudson and Walter Jones tie at 76th place. Patrick McHenry comes in at 106th place. Renee Ellmers, with a score of 62 percent, comes in at 157th place. Howard Coble, with a score of 58 percent, comes in at 176th place.

    Let's look over at the Senate. South Carolina's Tim Scott came in as the 6th most conservative member, with a ranking of 92 percent. Lindsey Graham came in at 39th out of 100, with a score of 65 percent.

    For North Carolina, Richard Burr is ranked right near Lindsey Graham at 36th place, with a score of 67 percent. Kay Hagan is the 61st most conservative member of the Senate, with a score of 3 percent. (Harry Reid ranked 80th, with a score of ZERO.)