Three of Carter County’s four representatives in the Tennessee General Assembly received awards for their conservative stance and voting records on important issues.
On Monday, the American Conservative Union announced it had honored Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, State Rep. John Holsclaw and State Rep. Timothy Hill with the organization’s “Award for Conservative Excellence.”
The ACU said it was honoring Holsclaw and Hill for their “commitment to upholding conservative principles during the 2015 General Assembly.
Each year, the ACU rates lawmakers and elected officials across the country on a variety of topics.
“Other groups that rate legislators focus on a single issue, like guns or tax policy,” said ACU Executive Director Dan Schneider.” “ACU’s ratings are unique in the sense that they are the only means of determining if a legislator is a full-spectrum conservative who has stood up for Ronald Reagan’s vision for economic opportunity, transparency in government, and a strong culture based on traditional values.”
Schneider said the ACU aims to educate voters about how closely their elected officials adhere to the idea of America’s founding, and how their elected officials compare to others across the country by rating all 50 state legislatures. ACU staff research and select a wide range of bills that reflect a member’s adherence to conservative principles.
According to information from the ACU, the organization select bills that focus on former President Ronald Regan’s philosophy of the “three-legged stool”: 1) economic: taxes, budgets, regulation, spending, healthcare and property; 2) social and cultural: 2nd Amendment, religious freedom, life, welfare, and education; and 3) government integrity: voting, individual liberty, privacy, and transparency.
Based on the scoring system used by the ACU, Holsclaw achieved a 100 percent rating, while Hill and Ramsey each achieved a 92 percent rating. State Sen. Rusty Crowe received a 77 percent rating from the ACU for his stance and voting record on conservative issues.
Holsclaw was one of 29 of the 99 members of the House of Representatives to achieve a 100 percent rating. In the Senate, nine of the body’s 33 members achieved a 100 percent rating.
When asked about his top score, Holsclaw said he was honored by the recognition.
“It’s an awesome award. It’s definitely something special,” he said. “It means more for our people than it does for me. I try to vote the conscience of the people and I try to do the right thing.”
As a state, Tennessee was also honored by the ACU for it’s overall conservative stance and recognized as having the most conservative state legislature in the country. The ACU presented the first ever “We the People” award to the Tennessee in honor of the designation.
Tennessee had an overall average of 80.5 percent with the second most conservative state, Idaho, averaging 73 percent. The overall average for the Tennessee House of Representatives was 83 percent while the Senate came in with an overall average of 78 percent.
Remarkably, every Republican leader in the Tennessee legislature earned the Award for Conservative Excellence, the only legislature in the country whose leadership achieved such high marks.
For more information and to learn more about the ACU Ratings visit: http://acuratings.conservative.org/.