US Senate Midterm Report on the Animals

Why was I looking for the Humane Scoreboard when it is on the Internet? Well, it would save me from having to print quite a few pages -- some of which I wanted to share with people who really care about how our legislators voted on animal issues. I find the Humane Scoreboard a truly wonderful service provided by the Humane Legislative Fund.

I had been getting all sorts of requests for political money from the candidates. Luckily, I didn't have any money to give, and certainly now when I checked the candidates' records, I found I wouldn't have supported them if I could have because of their poor scores on these animal issues: Chimpanzees, Horse Slaughter, Animal Welfare Funding, Animal fighting, Horse Soring, Horse Racing, Veterinary Medicine, and opposition to the destructive provision of the King Amendment

to the Farm Bill.

I will only be able to record the Senators' vote results in this post. I would like to tackle the 435 House votes, but as you can well imagine that it would take a lot of time and effort. I hope instead-that those who really care will go to the Humane Scoreboard on the internet and check out how their representative voted. My Ohio representative, Marcy Kaptur, only scored 50. She had plenty of company and the ONLY Ohio representative of the 16 we have to score above 50 was Joyce Beatty (D-3rd). She scored 87. Thank you Representative Beatty!

MIDTERM SCORES OF THE SENATE OF THE 113TH CONGRESS ON ANIMAL ISSUES (Those Senators with a star in front of their names scored 80 or more)

ALABAMA -- Sessions, Jeff --0, Shelby, Richard --20

ALASKA --Begich, Mark --40, Murkowski, Lisa -- 0

ARIZONA -- Flake, Jeff -- 0, McCain,John --0

ARKANSAS --Boozman, John --0, Pryor, Mark --20

CALIFORNIA- *Boxer, Barbara --100, *Feinstein, Diane -100+

COLORADO --Bennet, Michael --40, Udall, Mark --40

CONNECTICUT -- *Blumenthal, Richard - 100+, *Murphy, Christopher --80

DELAWARE --*Carper, Thomas --80, *Coons, Chris --80

FLORIDA --Nelson, Bill --20, Rubio, Marco --0

GEORGIA -- Chambliss, Saxby --0, Isakson, Johnny -- 0

HAWAII-Hirono, Mazie --60, *Schatz, Brian --100

IDAHO --Crapo, Michael --20, Risch, Jim --0

ILLINOIS --*Durbin, Richard --100, *Kirk, Mark -- 80

INDIANA- Coats, Dan -0, Donnelly, Joe --0

IOWA - Grassley, Charles -- 0, Harkin, Tom --60

KANSAS- Moran, Jerry --20, Roberts, Pat -- 0

KENTUCKY --McConnel, Mitch (top leaders don't vote), Paul, Rand -- 0

LOUISIANA -- *Landrieu, Mary - 100+, *Vitter, David --80

MAINE --*Collins, Susan, King, Angus -- 60

MARYLAND -- *Cardin, Benjamin --100, *Mikulski, Barbara --80

MASSACHUSETTS --*Markey Ed -100+, *Warren, Elizabeth -- 80

MICHIGAN -- *Levin, Carl -- 80, *Stabenow, Debbie --100

MINNESOTA --Franken, Al --40, Klobuchar, Amy --40

MISSISSIPPI -Cochran, Tad --20, Wicker, Roger --0

MISSOURI --Blunt, Roy --20, McCaskill, Claire --0

MONTANA- Baucus, Max-0, Tester, Jon --20

NEBRASKA -- Fischer, Deb --0, Johanns, Mike -- 0

NEVADA -- Heller, Dean -- 0, Reid, Harry (leader)

NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Ayotte, Kelly --60, *Shaheen, Jeanne --80

NEW JERSEY --Booker, Cory, Chiesa, Jeffrey --Filed seats during term,

Lautenberg, Frank (voted for the animals but died during term)

*Menendez, Robert --100

NEW MEXICO -- *Heinrich, Martin, Udall, Tom --60

NEW YORK -- *Gillibrand, Kirsten --100, Schumer, Charles-60

NORTH CAROLINA -- Burr, Richard --20, Hagan, Kay --0

NORTH DAKOTA --Heitkamp, Heidi --0, Hoeven, John --0

OHIO -- Brown, Sherrod --40, Portman, Rob --20

OKLAHOMA -- Coburn, Tom -- 20, Inhofe, James --0

OREGON --*Merkley, Jeff --100, *Wyden, Ron- 80

PENNSYLVANIA --Casey, Robert --60, Toomey, Pat --0

RHODE ISLAND --*Reed, Jack -- 100, *Whitehouse, Sheldon- 80

SOUTH CAROLINA -- Graham, Lindsey --40, Scott, Tim --0

SOUTH DAKOTA -- Johnson, Tim --60, Thune, John --40

TENNESSEE -- Alexander, Lamar --20, Corker, Bob- 0

TEXAS --Cornyn, John, Cruz, Ted --0

UTAH --Hatch, Orin --0, Lee, Mike --0

VERMONT --*Leahy, Patrick --100, *Sanders, Bernard --100+

VIRGINIA --Kaine, Tim --20, Warner, Mark --60

WASHINGTON -- *Cartwell, Maria --100, *Murray, Patty

WEST VIRGINIA -- Manchin, Joe, Rockefeller, Jay --20

WISCONSIN - Baldwin, Tammy- 60, Johnson, Ron --0

WYOMING -- Barrasso, John --0, Enzi, Michael -- 0

Phew! Glad this is done. I believe there were only 30 out of

100 Senators who scored 80 or 100. I also noted that the South

as a voting block did poorly and the Northeast, on the other hand,

showed great compassion for the animals. Lastly, Markarian kindly

noted that in some cases- missed votes were unavoidable for

personal reasons.