Winning the Senate in the "Dynamic Dozen" States

T he U.S Senate holds the key to moving the country in a conservative direction, which America so desperately needs. Now the Senate, at best, can be described as “moderate”. Look at how it has recently dealt with three key issues: (1) passing amnesty as its answer to the illegal alien problem; (2) failing to invoke the nuclear option when the Democrats threatened to filibuster virtually all of President Bush’s judicial nominees, and (3) the shameful failure to the pass the Marriage Protection Amendment. These three items are reason enough to drive Americans, especially Values Voters to the polls next week.

THE ISSUES

There are many issues facing America at this time. However I firmly believe that are two that hold the key to our future as a nation. These issues are Life (to move to ban all abortion), passing the Marriage Protection Act or Amendment to once and for all settle that issue. These two issues define us as a nation. Do we want to turn into a godless and pagan also-ran European-like amoral society? Or do we want to return to the foundation that made this country great and once again uphold virtue and morality? We need to correct the course in which our society has been heading the last 100 years, leftward, ho. There are three other very important issues. solving the illegal alien invasion problem, seeking sustained economic growth while reducing the federal deficit and our national trade imbalance and we need to win the war on terror in Iraq and elsewhere.

To summarize, let’s use the acrostic, L.I.G.H.T., where:

L = sanctity of life (with a value of 3 points),
I = stopping the illegal alien invasion (a value of 2 points),
G = economic Growth, deficient reduction (a value of 2 points),
H = Protecting marriage & containing advancement of Homosexual agenda in so “successfully” pervasive in our society today (a value of 2 points), and
T = winning War on Terror in Iraq, etc. (a value of 2 points) .


THE GRADES

After analyzing the 24 candidates running for Senatorial office in the following states: ARIZONA, FLORIA, MARYLAND, MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, MISSOURI, MONTANA, OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, TENNESSEE, VIRGINIA and WASHINGTON, I created a simple grading system rating based on their voting recond on the 5 key issues identified above by the acrostic, L.I.G.H.T. I call my classification system gregjaye’s grades. The grades are a continuum, where A= strong conservative principled and practicing politician through F = intense liberal principled and practicing politician. Each candidate receives a grade based on where they stand of the 5 key issues. L (sanctity of Life) and H (marriage protection & restraining Homosexuality) are worth 3 points and the other three issues (see above under "The Issues") are worth 2 points.

THE SCORECARD

GRADE A (Candidates who are strong on all 5 key issues)

Rick Santorum R (PA)…… L, I, G, H, T = 12 points
George Allen R (VA)…… L, I, G, H, T = 12 points
Michael Steele R (MD)…… L, I, G, H, T = 12 points
Jon Kyl R(AZ)…… L, I, G, H, T = 12 points
Katherine Harris R (FL)…… L, I, G, H, T = 12 points
Mark Bouchard R (MI)…… L, I, G, H, T = 12 points

GRADE B (Candidates strong on L & H & 2 of 3 other key issues)

Mark Kennedy R (MN) …… L, G, H, T = 10 points

GRADE C (Strong on L & H and 1 of 3 other key issues)

Bob Corker R (TN) …… L, H, T = 8 points
Mike DeWine R (OH)…… L, H, T = 8 points

GRADE D (Weak on L and/or H)

Conrad Burns R (MT) ...... L, I, G, T = 9 **

Jim Talent R (MO) )…… I, G, H, T = 9 points ***
Harold Ford D (TN)…… G, H, T = 8 points
Bob Casey D (PA)…… L, I, T = 7 points

GRADE F (Weak on L and H)


Mike McCavrick R (WA)…… I, T = 4 points
Bill Nelson D (FL)…… I, T = 4 points

Claire McCaskill D (MO) …… G = 2 points
Ben Cardin D (MD) …… I = 2 points
Maria Cantwell D (WA)…… T = 2 points
Amy Klobochar D (MN) …… I = 2 points
Jon Tester D (MT) …… I = 2 points

Sherrod Brown D ((OH ) …… = 0 points
Maria Cantwell D (WA) …… = 0 points
Ben Cardin D (MD)) …… = 0 points
Debbie Stabenow D (MI)) …… = 0 points
Jim Webb D (VA) …… = 0 points

** Voted YES on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
*** allowing exceptions in abortion law otherwise pro-life


CONCLUSION


To me all of those candidates with a grade of A, B, and C are key to moving the Senate in a more Conservative direction. Looking at the Senate race in Ohio it is DeWine with 8 points compared to Brown with no points, indicating that Brown is very on the five key issues important to Values Voters.

This grading system maty not be perfect, but it is an attempt to compare persons with conservative voting records to those with liberal voting records. It will be extremely interesting to follow the races next Tuesday to see if the Senate indeed becomes more conservative. Make A Good Choice on Election Day and vote conservative.