Nation’s Largest Taxpayer Group Rates New Mexico’s Congressional Delegation

America’s largest taxpayer group, the National Taxpayers Union, publishes an annual rating of Congress. As a former employee of NTU, I am intimately familiar with the ratings process and am pleased to say that their ratings are the best of any tax and fiscal policy organization in Washington.
The difference between NTU’s ratings and others is that NTU doesn’t pick and choose votes based on a political agenda. Instead, all votes are included and weighted based on their importance to taxpayers. The full report is available here.
When it comes to New Mexico’s delegation, Sen. Domenici received a mediocre “C,” while Bingaman received an “F,” coming in among the worst-rated Democrats in the entire Congress (on par with Barack Obama). In the House delegation, Pearce received a respectable “B+” while Wilson received a sub-par “C-” and Udall picked up a low “F.”
While these numbers are quite revealing on their own terms, trends are also notable and can be studied with the use of the ratings database. Since entering Congress in 2003, Pearce has begun voting with the taxpayer more often, improving from lows of 53% to his current high point of 79%. Wilson, Domenici, and Udall’s ratings have remained fairly consistent over the years but Bingaman has become less taxpayer-friendly over time.
This is certainly useful information in light of the myriad races voters will be faced with this fall.