1993-1994 Session in Review
The charts you will find by folding out these pages represent the voting record of each state legislator on important bills relating to environmental issues for which roll call votes were available. The votes tabulated are considered by the Maine League of Conservation Voters to be the most relevant roll call votes for each bill (on some bills there are several votes from which to choose). There were several pieces of important environmental legislation considered during the past legislative session which are not included in these ratings because roll call votes were not taken on the bills.
Any vote by itself may not be a fair benchmark of a legislator’s environmental record. However, the percentage of pro-environmental votes cast, based on a series of votes as represented here, should give a good indication of an individual’s overall environmental record. It is also important to look at a legislator’s environmental ratings from previous years.
Voting on important issues is a key responsibility of legislators. Therefore, the League scores all unexcused absences as anti-environmental votes. You should note the number of times your legislator did not vote, in addition to the overall percentage rating.
Other considerations include: In comparing ratings among legislators, differences of 10 or 15% may be insignificant, but differences of 25 or 50% are very revealing. The votes and ratings only measure decisions on roll call votes on the floor of the House and Senate; they do not include committee votes. Occasionally, a pro-environmental legislator may purposely vote the wrong way for procedural reasons. It is not possible to take such factors into account in the ratings.
Leadership on environmental issues is not measured on these charts. Sponsoring bills, forging important compromises, derailing environmentally damaging proposals and convincing other legislators to vote correctly are critical activities in which some legislators are far more active than others on environmental issues.
This scorecard does not include the environmental records of those candidates for the Legislature who are not incumbents. It is recommended that voters question these candidates regarding their positions on the issues included on this scorecard and other critical environmental topics.
Finally, the combined ratings of the individual legislators should not be taken as descriptive of the environmental performance of the Legislature as a whole, which is not being rated here.
