How Do You Get a 100% Rating from the Far-Far-Far Right “Family Foundation?”

The far-far-far-right Family Foundation of Virginia claims – like many groups of its ilk – to be all about “strengthen[ing] families.”  But based on its new scorecard of Virginia legislators, you can see what they REALLY care about. So, how do you get a 100% score from the Family Foundation of Virginia? You vote:

*YES on tax credits for “school choice”

*NO on the nomination of Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland, purportedly because he opposed Virginia’s anti-gay-marriage amendment, but in reality because he’s gay.

*NO on adding sexual orientation to Virginia’s non-discrimination hiring policy

*YES to allow homeschool children to participate in public school sports programs.

*YES on demolishing the wall between church and state by allowing for sectarian prayers at any public government meeting.

*NO on any state funding for Planned Parenthood.

*NO on ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

There’s plenty more, which you can see here. Note that almost none of this has anything to do with actually strengthening families, for instance helping parents and their kids get jobs, healthcare, a high-quality education, etc. Instead, it’s mostly highly divisive stuff that’s pretty much straight out of Pat Robertson’s and Ken Cuccinelli’s “social conservative” (e.g., anti-gay, anti-women’s-right-to-choose) agenda.

So, which legislators scored the highest (aka, the most far right) on this scorecard, and which scored the lowest (the most progressive)? Frighteningly, the two Republican candidates for Attorney General, Mark Obenshain and Rob Bell, both received 100% scores from this extreme organization. They were joined at 100% by people you’d expect to be there: Sen. Dick Black, Sen. Steve Martin (a GOP candidate for LG this year), Del. Scott Lingfamfelter (ditto), Del. David Ramadan (this guy actually represents an Obama district, believe it or not!), etc. No Democrats, of course.

As for the lowest scores (aka, the people who are actually most pro-family)? They’re all Democrats, of course: ZERO ratings to Delegates Surovell, Hope, Kory and Brink (thank you to all four!); 5% ratings to Delegates Lopez, McClellan, McQuinn and Toscano (also excellent – thank you!); 10% ratings to Delegates Hester, Krupicka, and Sickles; 11% ratings to Delegates BaCote, Filler-Corn and Herring, as well as Senator Locke; 12% ratings to Senator Puller and Delegate Jeion Ward. Nice job by all the Delegates and Senators who scored at the rock bottom of this hateful group’s scorecard, and keep up the great work!