New Jersey has had very few representatives that can be considered conservative,  based on their voting records.  These brave people would stand firm in the face of a liberal breeze that blew with hurricane force whenever they voted.  The likes of Jon Corzine, Dick Codey and Stephen Sweeney could not sway them from voting in the best interests of hard working New Jersey taxpayers.  Recently though, a very disturbing trend is developing in the voting patterns of these very republicans in the state house. 

Americans for Prosperity annually offers a report card on the votes that all of our representatives in Trenton cast on bills that affect the fiscal wellbeing of the taxpayers of New Jersey.  This report card excludes all votes on any social issues.  From these scores we see that the republicans in Trenton have not moved more to the right, but have actually made a turn towards the liberal left. 

During the reign of Corzine, seven (7) Republican members of the Assembly scored an A+, and two (2) graded out at A-.  Now, during the first term of Governor Christie, the highest grade we can find in the Assembly is one (1) B and two (2) B-.    It is even worse in the Senate, where now the best we can find is one (1) B-, when before we found one (1) A+ and two (2) A-.  

One would think that with a “Conservative” Governor Christie in town, the representatives that had upheld the conservative cause during the dark days of Corzine, would have been delighted to continue voting that way.  Other republicans, who had voted more like democrats, should have graded out higher too.  Something is radically wrong in Trenton now, when instead of seeing votes on fiscal bills that favors the taxpayer, they are rather favoring special interests and political cronies.

Just in the last few weeks, we have seen republicans vote to surcharge all electric ratepayers in the New Jersey $4 billion in order to guarantee a private company a profit and to use taxpayer monies to “prop-up” urban banks.  Rather than seeing fiduciary responsibility come to Trenton, the very opposite is occurring.  For what ever reason, those elected representatives we had come to hold as rock solid conservatives have now chosen to drift toward the middle and in some cases, make a sharp left hand turn.

Many people are going to offer a laundry list of excuses on why we are seeing this voting pattern.  To them I say yes, there are a thousand excuses to vote in a particular way, but only one reason.  The reason seems to be clear, they wish to please a certain person in Trenton, rather than the principles that a true conservative holds dear.

Before any more damage is done, it has to be made clear to them that these voting patterns must cease.  They where sent to Trenton based on their conservative values that they proclaimed during their campaigns.  We expect them to honor the trust we placed in them.

I have included a condensed report card for your convenience so you can see how your representatives and senator scored.  You may read the entire report card at AFP’s Midterm Scorecard. I think you will find it revealing and in many cases very disturbing.