Colorado Lawmakers Receive Overall Rating For Key Votes On Progressive Issues

It’s the election season, and you’re seeing a lot of allegations flying around about which politician said what and when.

Now, a website shows you, from a progressive perspective, how Colorado lawmakers actually voted not just on a single issue but on multiple issues at the state legislature.

The Colorado Values Project website, launched by ProgressNow Colorado, a progressive advocacy group, combines legislative voting scorecards from eight organizations and gives each lawmaker a rating based on the combined scores from all the groups.

The scorecards from the following organizations were used: One Colorado, Conservation Colorado, Colorado Education Association, Colorado Sierra Club, Women’s Lobby of Colorado, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, and Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado.

“At ColoradoValues.org, voters will find links to the issue-specific scorecards that our partners compiled with detailed breakdowns of the issues and votes,” said ProgressNow Director Ian Silverii in a news release. “This election, we want every Colorado voter to have the information they need to decide with confidence. The state legislature is where many of the laws most relevant to our daily lives are debated and passed. For Colorado progressives, knowledge is power.”

Conservative advocacy groups in Colorado haven’t combined the legislative scores of lawmakers into a single rating, like the Colorado Values Project did.

But right-leaning groups, like the Colorado Union of Taxpayers (CUT), issue annual ratings. CUT’s 2018 scorecard, for example, evaluates lawmakers based on votes that, in CUT’s view, allow families and individuals to “keep their hard earned dollars.”