WASHINGTON, D.C. — Club for Growth Foundation today released its Missed Votes Idaho scorecard for the State Legislature’s 2021 regular and special sessions. The newly launched Missed Votes Scorecards calculate how often lawmakers show up to vote and how often they miss votes.
According to Club for Growth Foundation President David McIntosh, “Constituents need to know the missed votes records of their representatives so they can decide for themselves if elected officials are avoiding a difficult vote or have a legitimate reason for missing a particular vote. Sadly, this information is often not available, and that is why the Club for Growth Foundation is publishing Missed Votes scorecards.”
Lawmakers miss votes for a whole host of reasons, including medical issues, family concerns, prior commitments, purely political motivations, or other reasons. The Club for Growth Foundation generally doesn’t analyze why a lawmaker has missed a vote and is simply publishing this quantified information for educational purposes only.
This scorecard is based on a review of all floor votes taken in the Idaho State Legislature from January 21, 2021 to November 16, 2021. There are inherent limitations in judging the overall qualifications of any legislator based on how many votes he or she has missed, and the Club for Growth Foundation does not endorse or oppose any legislator for public office.
Key Insights
Idaho Senate
The average Idaho senator missed 2 percent of 416 total floor votes, with Republican senators on average missing 2 percent of all floor votes and Democrat senators on average missing 2 percent of all floor votes. Sen. Daniel Johnson (SD-06) missed the most votes- 31 votes out 416 – for a score of 7 percent missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following senators received a perfect attendance score:
- Kevin Cook (SD-30)
- Jim Guthrie (SD-28)
- Mark Nye (SD-29)
- Ali Rabe (SD-17)
- Melissa Wintrow (SD-19)
- Christy Zito (SD-23)
Idaho House of Representatives
The average Idaho House member missed 3 percent of 475 total floor votes, with Republican members on average missing 3 percent of all floor votes and Democrat members on average missing 3 percent of all floor votes. Rep. Marc Gibbs (HD-32A) missed the most votes – 109 out of 475, – for a score of 23 percent missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following house members received a perfect attendance score:
- Scott Bedke (HD-27A)
- David Cannon (HD-31A)
- Karey Hanks (HD-35B)
- John McCrostie (HD-16A)
- Ronald Nate (HD-34A)
- Tony Wisniewski (HD-3B)
We asked lawmakers who missed at least 10 percent of the votes if they’d like us to include an explanation. Here is the one response we received:
Rep. Marc Gibbs (HD-32A): I missed some votes while I was out for knee replacement surgery. I paired on most votes. However you can’t pair on unanimous vote because there is no one on the opposite side to vote with.