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Illinois Chamber Releases 2007-2008 Legislative Ratings

If employers are to change the culture in Springfield, they must educate themselves on the record of their representatives and hold them accountable for it. The Illinois Chamber believes legislative ratings are an effective tool in this endeavor.  

The Illinois Chamber’s ratings are based on legislators’ votes on the key business legislation of the 95th General Assembly. The votes in the Senate and House are selected based on their impact on the business community and, to a lesser extent, the gap between opposing views on the issue. The votes are weighted accordingly. In cases where more than one roll call was taken on a bill, the most significant vote impacting the resolution of the issue has been selected.

As with any year, this year’s ratings are an important tool, though only one tool, to judge legislators’ support for employers and the economy. In ’07 and ’08, the unprecedented nature of the legislative action made compilation of the ratings especially challenging. The goal of the Illinois Chamber is to present the best representation of legislators’ records possible to their members and the public. However, the fact remains that they cannot rate issues if a representative roll call vote was not taken.

A review of the ratings will show that, in general, Republicans score better than Democrats. The Illinois Chamber thanks their Republican supporters and continues to work hard to narrow that gap among Democrats. However, it is important to note that many Democratic Senators, and an especially large number of House Democrats, were very supportive of the business community’s efforts to defeat the Governor’s agenda. That support is not reflected in their overall scores.

According to the Illinois Chamber, Champaign County legislators were rated as follows:

Representatives
Bill Black – 89%
Shane Cultra – 89%
Naomi Jakobsson – 9%
Chapin Rose – 89%

Senators
Mike Frerichs – 30%
Dan Rutherford – 88%
Dale Righter – 100%