I have crunched the numbers – i.e. the voting records of the last dozen years – to determine objectively which members of the New Hampshire House are RINOs – Republicans In Name Only.
I looked at every vote where (a majority of) Republicans voted opposite (a majority of) Democrats. I ignored votes where both sides voted the same. A RINO vote is when a Republican votes with Democrats against a majority of Republicans.
Almost every Rep, at one time or another, casts a vote the same as the Democrats. One example is when a Republican votes against the budget because it is too large while the Democrats vote against it because they think it is too small. Thankfully, such votes are not common.
Most Republicans only rarely vote with Democrats against other Republicans. Looking at the 194 Reps running for election this year, the median RINO score was 6%, meaning that on average, they voted with Democrats only 6% of the time. Anyone who voted as much as 15% of the time against fellow Republicans is a bit out of the mainstream. Anyone with a RINO score above 20% is definitely outside mainstream Republicans.
We want to thank Spec Bowers for this Op-Ed. Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Of the 105 current or former Reps in this year’s primary, 16 scored worse than 20%, seven were worse than 30%, and three were above 40%. Those three voted very nearly as much with Democrats as with Republicans.
RINO score
48.2% Cardon, G. Thomas (R, Derry)
46.7% Wolf, Dan (R, Newbury)
46.1% Willis, Brenda (R, Derry)
37.1% Ham, Bonnie (R, N Woodstock)
36.1% Bickford, David (R, New Durham)
35.5% Gonzalez, Carlos (R, Manchester)
34.8% Crawford, Karel (R, Ctr Harbor)
29.0% Deshaies, Brodie (R, Wolfeboro)
28.1% Mason, James (R, Franklin)
25.9% Umberger, Karen (R, Kearsarge)
22.9% Allard, James (R, Pittsfield)
21.5% Gay, Betty (R, Salem)
21.4% Sytek, John (R, Salem)
21.2% McMahon, Charles (R, Windham)
21.0% Khan, Aboul (R, Seabrook)
20.3% Janvrin, Jason (R, Seabrook)
Dishonorable Mention goes to two who are very near to 20%:
19.8% Milz, David (R, Derry)
19.4% Richardson, Jon (R, Allenstown)
In the coming days we will report the RINO scores on a district-by-district basis. E.g., in Derry, with 16 Republicans vying for ten seats, the RINOs are Cardon, Willis, and Milz.
If you want Republicans to vote like Republicans, vote against these RINOs in the September 13 primary. But if they survive the primary, they will vote better than their Democrat opponents so please vote for them in November.
